Daily Syl: Happy Birthday America!

If you don't know the Brockton Country Fair, you don't know jack. Normally, when we go to a carnival, we hang around for an hour or so, start feeling skeeved out and then get the sudden urge to leave. Not at the Brockton Country Fair! At the Brockton Country Fair, you do feel skeeved out almost immediately (possibly from the pat down for weaponry you go through upon entry!), but you work through that skeeviness because you're surrounded by the craziest carnies, most heavily mulletted attendees, and the greatest old-school attractions in New England.

Check out this carnival game, for instance. Object of game at a run-of-the-mill carnival: Throw a dart, break a balloon, win a prize. Not at the Brockton Country Fair! At the Brockton Country Fair, the rules of the game are as follows:
Rule 1) the surprisingly articulate carny hands your 2 year old daughter the big prizes to try to "see what she gets attached to so you know what you're playing for." After letting your daughter hang on to them for a minute or so, the carny slowly pulls one of the stuffed prizes away from the young girl. If the child starts to cry, you've successfully determined what prize you need to play for. Rule 2) You hand the carny a $10 bill thinking he'll just hand you $5 change and 3 darts to win the prize you've decided your daughter has her heart set on. The carny does not do what you think he'll do. Instead, he goes to Rule 3. Rule 3) The carny tries to up-sell you by handing your daughter an even bigger prize. Rule 4) Your wife steps in and tells you to just get the darts and win the prize so we can go check out the rest of the carnival. Rule 5) The carny tells your wife that $5 of darts will not even be enough to win the original, smaller stuffed animal...$5 wins you this crappy thing that wraps around your wrist (see the blue piece of junk on the carny's arm). You've got to win two of those, then you can trade up to the original animal your daughter got attached to, and is still holding on to. Rule 6) Your wife gets furious and tells the carny that "my daughter is not a tool for your manipulation." Rule 7) The carny's entire demeanor changes and he acts as if he is taken aback by your wife's verbal onslaught. To prove that he wasn't manipulating your daughter, he shoves the $10 bill back into your hand and says "How about we just don't play this game then" Rule 8) You and your family walk slowly away from the game stand praying that the carny is just stable enough that he doesn't start throwing those darts in your direction.

Strange game, right? You never actually touch the darts! I'm just explaining this to demonstrate the Brockton Country Fair's uniqueness.

So after the game, we took a stroll to the petting zoo. This was no average petting zoo...no, no. It wasn't advertised as such, but it must have been the Animal Abuse/Neglect Petting Zoo of New England. The interesting thing about these cows is that they've all lost the will to live.

We caught the 5:25pm Pig Abuse show....man, do those things squeal when held unnecessarily by their hind legs in front of all the spectators.

Sylvie absorbing it all like a sponge.

Cotton candy....obligatory carnival "food." Carnies subsist solely on this stuff.

Mike, Sylvie and Susie walking to the Demolition Derby (aka Wreckin' Rodeo)

I didn't think I'd enjoy the Derby anywhere NEAR as much as I actually did.

Youtube of the action to follow! Sylvie LOVED it too!

Mike tried his hand at a game with much simpler rules than the game described above. Basically, he needed to put a ping-pong ball into a lily pad shaped bowl that was floating by in a pool.