Saturday, August 15, 2009

Hamburg Fair Ends on Sunday

It's country fair season in Connecticut. If you are so inclined, you can spend almost every weekend from here to Halloween surrounded by exhibition bunnies, lime rickeys and prize-winning pumpkins. There's a complete list at www.ctfairs.org.

Everyone knows about the Granddaddy of all Connecticut Fairs: that would be the Durham Fair in late September. But my family also thrills to the tiny-but-perfect Hamburg Fair, held this weekend on the Grange Fairgrounds on Route 156 in Lyme. It's just $5 per grownup (kids under 12 are free) and it's long on small town charm and short on jaded hucksterism.

We spent the afternoon watching teams of horses pull 6,000 pounds of concrete and watching our 7-year-old take yet another turn on the giant jump rope. A sunflower cake won the blue ribbon, and two gentlemen from the Pisgah Mountain Primitives showed us how to make hemp rope (conveniently located next to the portable ATM machine.)

There was fried dough, pony rides, and a dunking tank sponsored by the cub scouts.

We capped off our evening with a stop at the Hallmark Drive-in for homemade ice cream, also on Rt. 156 in Lyme.

The Hamburg Fair will be open for just one more day -- Sunday, August 15th from 9 am to 6 pm.

Ah, summertime.






No comments: