Milton Fall Fair: Thanks for the coupons!
Another Fall Fair in the books!
What a day my family and I had at the 2007 Milton Fall Fair on Sunday afternoon. I have a young family - my son Brody is 4 and-a-half, and my daughter Ruby is one and-a-half. These are busy times around my household, but we made sure to clear at least one day out this past weekend for our annual pilgrimage to one of Milton’s signature events, the Fall Fair.
Unlike fairs or exhibitions in larger cities, we calmly drove across town, found parking within five minutes of the fair grounds, and leisurely strolled on in. No lineups. No fuss, no muss.
We did the usual tour of the horses, cows, goats, llamas and sheep in the barns, before noticing that our favourite event, the demoliton derby, was set to begin. We ran and grabbed the bottom row of a set of bleachers and watched as umpteen cars were eliminated from the noisy competition in a cloud of dust, dirt, stones and twisted metal. An axle and wheel even became dislodged at one point, causing the red flags to come out and the derby to be halted momentarily.
I was particularly astounded at the bravery of the derby officials, perched perilously close to the action, balancing on top of the concrete barriers surrounding the ‘arena’. No helmets, goggles, gloves or protective gear of any kind. They just dodged flying stones and dirt while signalling to the drivers when necessary with their flags…. (I won’t be signing up for that job anytime soon).
After that, it was off to the food area for some good ‘ol Fair fare…. French fries doused with salt and vinegar, please.
We decided (ok, Brody decided) it was time to hit the rides. I wandered over to the ticket booth to decide how many coupons to buy when a man walked up to me.
“Here - take these” he said, handing me a huge sheet of at least 20-25 coupons. “We’re leaving - we don’t need them.”
Before I could compute what just happened, he was gone. I had no time to offer him some money for them, and he was gone so quick, I even think my ‘thank you’ fell on deaf ears.
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank him (I’m sure he will know who I’m referring to) for his generosity. Our kids enjoyed the rides, slides and bouncy castles for the rest of the afternoon, as we happily used up almost all of the coupons. Again, from myself and my family, I just want to say thanks. These are the kinds of things that make living in Milton worth it. Yes, there are always a few bad apples anywhere, but overall, this is the kind of thing you expect from Miltonians and why we love living here. The quality of the people combined with well-organized and well-run events such as the Fall Fair make living in Milton second-to-none.
From there, we began the trek towards the exits as the sun began it’s descent toward the horizon, stopping to talk to an old friend and take a few pictures with a huge pumpkin left sitting under one of the tents along the way (Linus would have been thrilled!).
Exhausted, but fulfilled, we all headed home. Brody and Ruby went right to sleep, making things easy for Mom and Dad. And again, we have the generous person who left us their midway coupons to thank.
In case you’re interested, my family pictures from our day at the Milton Fall Fair can be seen in the MiltonSearch.com photo gallery here. Enjoy.
Dave Brown,
Owner, MiltonSearch.com