Prologue
Even though summer is winding down and we are all heading back to school, we still have some adventures planned through at least the autumn and hopefully we can keep the momentum going into winter this year. Quinn and I, for example, took advantage of a nice Saturday last week to attend a local fair. Not the craziest of adventures, but it was fun and worth the trip.
Journal
Quinn joined 4H this year. He is our animal lover. He is the kid who will point out and announce every dog that we pass, ask the owner to pet the dog, and then proudly proclaim to all listening that he just pet the dog. He has mentioned more than one that when he gets older, he’s going to buy a house and buy a million puppies to live with him. He even changed the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s “Million Reasons” song to “Million Puppies”.
It makes sense. He was partially raised by Christine’s cousin, who moved to the small town of Warwick on a huge plot of land to build and maintain a farm. He helped feed and raise pigs and cows while in her care. She also has two dogs and a family of barn/house cats that he loves very much and mentions often. He is an animal lover to his core.
He even loves extinct animals. For a couple of years when he was younger, he told us that he wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. He got a costume for Christmas one year along with an excavating kit, which was basically just a plaster cast with some fossilized poop and a bone or two. But, he put on that costume and “dug” for his treasures. Living, dead, it doesn’t matter. He loves them all.
It should come as no surprise that we used animals to convince him to join 4H. We knew that he would have a great time. However, he is often reserved when it comes to social situations. Usually, we let him have his space. In this case, though, we knew that 4H would be a perfect fit and not only because of the animals. He also enjoys crafts, gardening, reading and watching shows about nature, and being outdoors. But, we needed a hook and the animals provided it.
The reason for this lengthy interlude about 4H is that it relates to our attendance at the fair. His 4H leader suggested that he go to a fair or two over the summer to get an idea of what they involved. We usually attend a larger fair at the end of the summer (coming up this weekend or next, actually), but saw that the 100th anniversary of the Heath Fair was being celebrated this year, so we made plans to attend.
He was psyched about going. His first fair was a couple of years ago and he went with just me and Christine. It was the Franklin County Fair. He had fried dough with strawberry jam topping and loved it so much that he wanted it for his birthday cake the next year. He saw pigs race, giggling as they ran across the track and into the pool. He still talks about getting to pick a pig during the race and that his pig won one of the races. It was a great experience and he has been excited about fairs ever since. Our second time was as a family and it was a trip to the Big E. Even with Big in the title, I don’t think that it emphasizes just how huge this particular fair is. Just for starters, there are 5 separate buildings that house food, drink, and other tourist events from each of the 5 New England states. There are also a ton of carnival rides and games. If you have never been and you want to get an idea of the scope, check out the web page. Last year, there was a tent with the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. It is massive.
I wasn’t sure how he’d react to a smaller fair after having experienced two of the largest in the area, if not the state. He remained enthusiastic, though. He kept talking about seeing the bunnies. Not only did we use animals to lure him in, but those animals were bunnies. Yes, we may just be the most diabolical parents. But, we are effective.
Christine and I were both going to go with him on Saturday, but something interfered with those plans and she had to work on Sunday, so that’s how it ended up being just the two of us. I’ve got to say, the price was right. 8 dollars for me, he was free, and a buck to park. Once in the fair, he did get to see his bunnies, and chickens, and cows. There were also horses, but I don’t think they were show horses.
After wandering through the show animals, we went to the other side of the fairgrounds. There was an amphitheater and I wanted to see what was happening. They were doing oxen pulls. On the way, I noticed that they were also registering cars for a classic car show. I really wanted to see the cars, but he wasn’t interested, so I figured we could come back. He did want to see the oxen pull teams, so we watched that for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Then, he got hungry, so we went in search of food. He said that he wanted sausage, but then only ate one bite of that. He did eat a basket of french fries by himself over two sittings. We wandered into the bunny area again, checked out the arts and crafts, watched a parade that he called the best he’s ever seen, watched a firefighter land what I assume was their new toy (a drone), and finished the day with french fries and more crafts.
I said in my last entry that this summer has been less about exploring places that we haven’t been and more about connecting with ourselves and each other. While this particular fair was one that we hadn’t visited before, so much so that I had to input it into the GPS and still wasn’t exactly sure where I was or where I was going, it was still familiar territory for us due to our past experiences with fairs.
We have a massive trip planned for next summer to Florida and maybe more on the east coast. Perhaps this summer was just a refueling mission to prepare us for that massive undertaking. Granted, Christine has been to Disney enough times to start saying out loud that she’s sick of it and I’ve been twice, so it’s not a completely new trip. However, the boys have only been once and Quinn was very little during our last trip, so he’s never been. It promises to be a fun trip, but it will be one of those vacations that we will have to take another vacation when it is over.
So, this year was about going to the Cape to find ourselves. It was about visiting fairs to remind ourselves. It was a summer just for us. The last few years have been stressful and chaotic. I’m not going to tempt fate by saying that will change, but if this summer is any indication, we are turning a corner. The boys have played well together, even though Quinn is left behind sometimes by the bigger boys. Christine is rested and seemed to conquered some of her demons. I’ve renewed my commitment to being a better father and husband.
Epilogue
You read about these life changing summers in books and watch them on movies and TV shows all the time so much that they are cliche. Also, I wonder if you can be so self aware as to realize that you are in the middle of one when it is happening. However, if the cliche is based in reality and you really can recognize when the universe is realigning more to your liking, then this has definitely been one of those summers.
And so, it seems, that life most often changes not in huge and immediately recognizable ways. Though, those happen, too. I’ve experienced maybe more than my share of earth shattering events such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. They’ve scarred and healed me accordingly. I know that physical scars don’t every fully heal and the same might be true about emotional ones, too. However, if they do heal, even if not fully, our summer together as a family has done much to accelerate that healing.