No metal on the track

Umpteen years ago (or maybe just four), during our wild young adult years, we sat in the dust of the Chelsea Community Fair on a late summer's night taking in the sights and sounds of the Figure Eight Demolition Derby.  This year we journeyed back to the same fair, similar event, with my parents and Calvin.  It was the same food, the same animals, and the same dust–all the things I love about a good community fair!  While there Calvin got to pet a day old chick and take in a real live sheep shearing (that was cool), and we discovered that the older he gets the more expensive the fair gets.  We didn't even think to take into account the fact that he is now tall enough and brave enough to try several of the carnival rides (how many times can a little boy ride the train ride?  To infinity and beyond...), some of which must be ridden with an adult (not that Gram begrudged him a chaperone on the merry-go-round).  The demolition derby, however, was not a favorite new event for him.  The noise alone was enough to set him on edge, but he was willing to accept our calm laughter as a sign of safety until one of the cars breached the barrier of cement blocks, after which he decided that the danger was no longer contained and he needed to leave immediately.  "I think we should leave this place now" were, in fact, his exact words and emphasis.  So we left the stands after only two rounds of derby, and escaped to the quieter and calmer train ride to watch him take yet another trip around the same twenty feet of track.  Wild.

More pictures from the fair (including the sheep shearing!) are in the new August 2009, too album (we took too many pictures in August for just one album).