NYS Fair

For about fifty years of my life and many years more for my parents, the New York State Fair was on our list of to-do things. It cost fifty cents to enter for many of those years and we could bring our own food and drink. This worked out quite well for poor folks. Additionally, great acts (whose time had come and gone) were free in Empire Court!!! The best fun was in people watching … thousands upon thousands of men, women and children … old, young and in between … all dressed from Sunday go-to-meeting to barely attired. It was, at times, both fabulous and frightening. My parents loved the Fair. So, it made sense that on our way to her Memorial Mass in Syracuse that we make a stop at the Fair to give Miss Addie one more walkabout. There may be some who find this a tad bizarre but I promise you that my mother would have been the first to think this quite the hoot. As we wandering through the many exhibits and finally took a seat outside the Horticulture building and just simply watched the human parade pass by, we agreed that our box full of Addie ashes looked better than most of the souls traveling by. And, we could hear Miss Addie’s laughter somewhere high over head as she nodded in agreement.