The Lancaster Fair. It’s an event of enormous cultural significance in this part of the world. The fair started in 1870, and was known as the Coos and Essex Co Agricultural Fair. Initially, its main focus appears to have been horse racing and baseball, with selling of agricultural products and livestock.

New England is dotted with similar fairs, large and small. This one is pretty big as fairs go, lasting for six days.

I like the sheepdog trials and the pie contests. From time to time, I enter a pie. You drop your pie off at 3pm and the judging commences at 4pm. So you have about an hour to wander through the midway, take a peek at the petting zoo, listen to music, and eat greasy food. (On Friday, I ate a spicy Italian sausage along with a strawberry lemonade.)

There’s a certain inevitable energy and excitement to the fair. But in the end, reflecting on my time there, I couldn’t help but think of an old song covered famously by Bonnie Raitt (but originally written by Joel Zoss).

Here’s the tune, set to a slide show of my fair photos from Friday and Saturday, below: