Fair Ladies

Like most years, I will spend a lot of this weekend at the Collingwood fair.

The rain (if it comes, which I think it won't) won't really matter. The GNE (Great Northern Exhibition for you newbies) has a terrible reputation for being a washed-out affair nearly every year, and yet, most of my photos at the fair feature sunshine. Funny, that.

I was recruited into helping install some of the displays this year, and came away a bit worried about the future of the event.

Oh, there were a lot of entries in the sewing and cooking and quilting competitions, but the people who were volunteering to judge and display them were all of a certain age. The age at which the future becomes no longer certain. I was the youngest person there by at least 25 years.

These women and men are all from good solid farming stock, and while they have worked long and hard hours most of their lives, it wasn't generally 9-5. There is some flexibility when it comes to fall fair time if you're a farmer or a member of a farm family. But things have changed down on the farm. Most of the farmers I know have another job. All of the farmers' wives I know have another job, which is why they weren't out helping on a Thursday afternoon. They were working. Allthe fair's work was being done by retirees.

20 years from now, who will help me to set up the quilts on a Thursday afternoon?
Will there be any quilts to display?

I'll see you at the fair - helping at the beef ring on Saturday afternoon and I'll be everywhere else the rest of the weekend, chowing down on Dave's lamb on a bun, and wishing I'd had time to make a quilt or bake a pie this year.