Forecast is for Fair weather this weekend

Lou Marzeles
Editor and Publisher

     It’s the Fair.
Back in Sedona, Arizona, from whence some folk in these parts have lately arrived, if you say “fair,” they might wonder if there’ll be any famous psychics there. One banner for such an event years ago proclaimed the presence of a well-known lady medium (one who purports to commune with discarnate people) in this way: “Come see this Medium Rare, this Psychic Fair.”
     Let ’em try that kind of fancy verbal footwork around here. They’d likely end up in a dunking booth hoping someone in the very long line of ticket buyers will at least occasionally miss the target that plunges them into the barrel of water.
     This is not meant to disparage anyone. Everyone has a right to make a living. It’s just that the longer one lives here, the more appreciates this area for its rustic qualities. This is a no-nonsense, agricultural town of down-to-earthers, a community so rustic you need a license to wear a tuxedo (if you could find, or ever need, one).
     There’ll be no psychics and no tuxedos at the county fair this weekend. It’ll be cowboys and cowgirls, bulls and horses and sheep and animals you won’t recognize right away, entertainment galore, more food that you can shake a hay bale at, and a few thousand people who love the Klickitat County Fair. It’s the midsummer highlight of the county.
     While we’re waxing poetic about fun events in the area, we should not overlook what’s going on at the Maryhill Museum this same weekend. Surely there’s time to get to some events at both the museum and the fair. We’ll have to check on Maryhill’s policy on allowing cotton candy, and you definitely want to check the bottoms of your shoes after strolling past the animal stalls at the fair before heading off to admire the Rodin sculptures.
     So here we are in an area that boasts one of the last truly great county fairs and a world-class museum, within about a dozen miles of each other. Maybe around here a cowboy hat actually could go well with a tuxedo after all. It’d have to be black, of course. But if any place could accommodate the two, it’s here.