Grange Fair: Peach Perfect/Flamingo Tent/1st Place

It's heading into late August, and you know what that means in central Pennsylvania: it's time for the Grange Fair! One of my best girlfriends and I have been doing the fair for more than 20 years. We have only missed a few. The last one we had done together was 2019, but this year, I am happy to report that my friend and her 12-year-old daughter and I made it to the fair!

When I was still working, we used to meet there around 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon. I'd mark a couple of hours of vacation time from work, and we'd do it up right. We'd walk for hours and hours, eat everything in sight, visit the animals, ride a ride or two, and buy strange things at weird booths. We often didn't get home until around midnight, which was late for me on a work night!

So we did all of that, except for the rides. And my friend had the whole day off work, so we were able to meet up at around 11 in the morning, and we stayed the whole afternoon, walking around and enjoying the fair. We left around 4:30, just in time to beat most of the Penn State work traffic.

The Grange Fair is the last true encampment fair in the United States. People actually move in and stay there. They pass their tents and tent spaces down through families for generation after generation. True love has started at the fair; the benches proclaim it, name by name!

The waiting list for camping spots is long; in fact, impossible. I had heard a rumor that at one point, the list was 500 years long, and they weren't even TAKING more names because you didn't have a chance of getting in during your own lifetime!

A thing that is different about this fair is how friendly people are. I can't tell you how many strangers I had pleasant conversations with. My friend and I ended up hugging two old guys on our way in (no, we didn't know them; and yes, you should have seen their faces!). I found someone's missing water bottle and helped them get it back. And everything we bought, we got to chat it up with the person who sold it and/or made it!

I've got three photos for this day, and let me tell you what they are. The one above is my friend dipping her spoon into her peach dumpling with cinnamon ice cream. I asked her to crack that dumpling open and show me the peachy goodness inside, and so my main picture is a photo of that delectable scene.

The tents themselves where people stay are also well worth seeing, and the pink flamingo tent is a personal favorite. So you may see that tent in all its pink and green glory in the extras. Yes, people actually live in these tents during the fair!

We love to walk around and look at the displays in the buildings. There are quilts and all kinds of collections and hand-made things. The one building had a display of the canned goods with their red and blue prize-winning ribbons on, and I just liked the way that looked, so you may find a shot of that in the extras as well!

So I show you all of these photos, but I must tell you that the best part of it all was seeing my friend again after several years. There are people who knew you when, and she is one of those for me. We don't get together very often, but let me tell you this, my friend: It was delightful for us to be back together on the midway, and I hope to see you again next year at the fair!

I have three photos, so let's have three soundtrack songs. First, for my dear friend, who has been my friend practically forever. We have been through so many things together, and we have helped each other walk through some tough times. My song for her is Michael W. Smith, with Friends.

To the people camping out in tents, who stay the whole 10 or so days of the fair, I dedicate Jackson Browne's song Stay. And for the canned goods with the red and blue prize ribbons, here is Santana, with Winning.

Bonus boxed set of all of the Grange Fair postings in my journal:
2012 - Meet me at the fair!
2013 - In which we make new friends at the fair!
2014 - The "Monkey Man" and the monkey's kiss
2015 - Here there be cows
2016 - The Grange Fair: sunset on the midway
2017 - Lord have mercy! Peach dumpling at the fair!
2018 - Grange Fair: taco stand in the night
2019 - Celebrating 145 years of the Grange Fair!
2022 - Summoning unicorns at the Grange Fair!