Fairs

Over the Labor Day weekend, we decided to head up to the Hopkinton Fair. It seemed like a good idea, and it was, but I soon realized that fairs actually get to me. I kept scanning all the food vendors trying to decide what I wanted first: the candy apples, fried dough, kettle corn, or cotton candy. Oh no! There's one with apple crisp and ice cream for sale - the food got to me.
Then, I started getting sucked into all the carnival games, feeling like I absolutely must have the giant blow up Scooby Doo, and thinking, "Of course I could beat all those people trying to shoot a stream of water into a hole to make the balloon rise to the top first" - the games got to me.
Then we went to the animal exhibits. After walking through dirt and manure in our flip flops to pet the cows and goats, my heart began to race as I scanned the premises for hand sanitizer for the kids. We visited the bunnies which seemed much cleaner, and it actually crossed my mind that it might be a good idea to get one for the kids. Again, the fair got to me.


Then we went on to the rides, and that's where it ended. No more would the fair get to me - each ride was at least 3 tickets to ride, and tickets were $1 each. It cost us $12 to send the kids down a giant slide (they wanted to do it twice), $6 to have them ride around a miniature train track, $6 to ride the ferris wheel, and that's where it ended. "No more" I said, trying to make my point that fairs are nothing more than money gulpers. Now I'm on to them. We must draw the line here. Sorry kids, we can't play that game that says "everyone is a winner" and win an annoying plastic trumpet-like horn for $3 - it's a rip off. But I confess, I did get my fried dough and cotton candy on the way out. However, I had to chuckle as the man ahead of us was dragging a 6 foot blow up alien to his car - it got to him.