Hometown Celebration

It's been about three years since I was able to attend the last homecoming and county fair activities in my home town. The work schedule I was on didn't allow me to travel the short distance home to attend the festivities. This year, I switched work crews with another individual which allowed me to have this upcoming weekend off. And you know something, I'm pretty excited about it. Now don't get me wrong, this is a small-town, small-county celebration we're talking about. Year in and year out, things basically remain the same. But this celebration allows people to come back and reminisce about the old times, if you will. I like to refer to it as reunion-weekend, as well. Many class reunions from the high school are held during the weekend, so it's not uncommon to see a few old faces from the past. In ten years, it'll be my classes' reunion (which totally blows my mind). I wouldn't be surprised to see a few familiar faces from the class of '99 this weekend.

The homecoming and county fair celebrations have been a part of my summer for as long as I can remember. There have been a few family reunions and gatherings held during this weekend, as well. The parade through town is probably the biggest highlight for me. I've even been in the parade on a few instances when I was younger. Again, it's a small town parade but it seems like in the smallest of parades, that's when you get the most candy. And I'll tell you, candy is no longer a big priority when you're an adult, but my niece and nephew will be joining us at the parade in a few days and they'll get a kick out of being thrown all that candy. No matter how old you are, you can never get tired of a parade. And it typically features just about every local business in the area. I mean, this is probably the biggest weekend of the year to experience hometown pride.

As part of the county fair, we used to submit exhibits to put on display and to be judged. It was actually a really good way to earn money, because if your displays were awarded a blue (first place), red (second place) or white (third place) ribbon, you also earned money depending upon the ribbon you won for your respective display. The majority of the ribbons my sisters and I won through the years were blue. Heck, one of my sisters consistently won top prize ribbons for her sewing and for my mom's vegetables. It was actually a nice way to earn some money in the summer time especially if you're a young kid. Not only that, but it was neat to see all of the animals on display and to check out some of the vendors that had merchandise on sale. This particular county fair was never known for having any rides for the kids to enjoy as there's not a tremendous amount of space for such things, but they offer many different activities for kids. So it's not a total snooze-fest for the kids that do attend.

So needless to say, I am pretty happy about getting the opportunity to attend this year's homecoming and county fair for the first time in three years. Hopefully the management where I work doesn't decide to switch crews on me again like what has been rumored, otherwise this might be the last weekend I'll be able to attend the hometown celebration for awhile. And although it's a small town celebration and typically not much changes year in and year out in this town, its still always about the people. And this is one chance throughout the entire year for the whole community to get out and see what's going on in the community and to reunite with individuals they may not have seen in years.