Tradition and Connections

It is the second weekend in September and the annual Cowichan Exhibition is in high gear. It is the 143rd year of the fall fair in this community. Over the years it has changed and somewhat shrunken but there are still the old timers and many new families join in and share their talents and gifts. Two years ago it moved from the land that once belonged to my great Uncle to another farm further out of town. There aren’t as many farmers as there once was nor as many women baking pies but still, the fair carries on in great tradition.

My family has been going for as long as I can remember and in tradition, we go in the morning and look at all the exhibits and see who made what and what they won. I never entered anything as a child but my children entered a few things over their growing up years. Then each year we go home for lunch and return to the fair around 4 pm and at 5pm we all have Chinese food. If you want to see the Evans gang at the fair you just have to go to the Chinese food stand at 5 pm and there you will find us.(Many of our extended family and friends know this and will show upJ) Followed by this we sometimes check out the barns if we haven’t previously done so, pet the horses, "ah" over the cute bunnies and try to avoid the cow droppings in between and then we wait for the evening music to start. These last 15 years the highlight for my daughters has been to take my Mom on the Tilt -a -Whirl ride because Grannie just loves it and laughs and giggles through the whole thing. It is a good time and we all look forward to it. Grannie is 76 this year and still going strong.  This is our special “girl“ time together each year.

                                            Dad and Mom enjoying another year at the fair

My friends who have been in this community for the past 8 years had never been to the fair and were thinking of coming on Saturday so I told them I would see them there and some of the things we could do as I felt they would need some "family connections" to really see what the fair was all about. Well they texted Friday night to say they were going that night so I replied “have fun”. Now I must admit, I kinda chuckled to myself at the time because I thought...they are not going to have much fun and be wondering what one does at the fair but I also hoped that they may run into a few people they knew and make some of their own “connections” with friends. Well I ran into them this afternoon and they never said anything but I brought up the fact that there wasn’t much to do at the fair and I could tell that they totally agreed with me. I tried to explain to them about the fair but really didn’t know what to say because they are right...there isn’t much there.

No, there really isn’t a lot to do at the fair if you don’t enjoy watching animals being judged or horses jumping over rails or seeing which old tractor can pull the furthest, but what there is, is connection. The fair is where you will see people that you may only see each year at the fair. A time when you reunite, find out how each other’s year has been and wish each other the best for the coming year. You’ll get to see your friends’ children or grandchildren, hear their accomplishments and share in a few laughs.  This morning in fact I was witness to the most beautiful event. A young woman who was born with Down syndrome, who my children went to school with, was sitting on a bench a few feet from us. I looked over and her boyfriend was down on his knees and he slid a beautiful ring onto her finger and asked her to marry him. She squealed in delight, leapt up into his arms, they shared a loving kiss and then she ran over to show us her beautiful ring...he followed and very proudly stated that is was a good ring and it had only cost him $28.00. They were two very innocent, young, loving people and their joy and love touched my heart.

So the small town fair....not much there if you’re not an old time farmer, not much to do if you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on rides but what there is there, is history, tradition and lots and lots of connections. And you may just get blessed as I was today, to see love in action.