Mom, apple pie and the Jefferson County Fair – you can’t beat ’em! The county fair is a perfect slice of Americana that we wish everyone across the globe could experience at least once. Then, they would know what America and her people are all about, from the whirling blur of Ferris-wheel lights to the sublime sense of community, from the decadent aroma of cotton candy to the indestructible family bonds that are formed over the generations who have participated in the Jefferson Count Fair.

These sights and sounds are some of the best the country has to offer, and we are so very grateful to be able to share in it. The county fair’s ancestors, harvest fairs, date back centuries – millennia, even – when the farmers would gather at the nearest hamlet or village to sell their produce that they had worked so hard to cultivate during the growing season. With such a gathering would come artisans selling their wares and traveling troupes of entertainers as well as a few hucksters.

And people being people, it was only natural that soon contests developed and became instant traditions to see who had the biggest turnip, which sheep was wooliest and whose peach preserves tasted better .

It really hasn’t been that long ago, before the explosion of cable television and the Internet, that for a country boy and a country girl, the county fair was the event of the year. It’s where you went, quite literally, to “see the elephant.”

We would encourage everyone to take advantage of the last two days of the Jefferson County Fair. It is more than worth the trip out Leetown Pike to take part in our very own little slice of Americana.