Celebrating the 4th.

It is hard to describe July 4th celebrations due to their number. There were at least five within a 45 minute drive here in Vermont, and probably at least that many within an hour in New Hampshire. Every town and village with any civic spirit put on something, even if the scale is much smaller than the Kenilworth parade.

Events stretched out over Friday night through Sunday night, and a couple of the bigger events were by admission fee only. We wanted to take the dogs with us, so we opted for the more laid-back craft show and state fiddle championships in Lyndonville, a town about 10 miles up the very twisty, hilly road from our house. Despite the surrounding mountains, downtown Lyndonville is perfectly flat. The twin events were held at the town park. This time maps were not necessary. We only had to follow the traffic and fiind a parking place.

The crafts show consisted of about 40 vendors selling everything artisan from baskets to weaving. Some of the work was quite good, but overall, it was typical of what you see everywhere. Two things noticeably missing were goose (or duck) merchandise and wood cutouts to stick in the yard, both staples of all the fairs I've seen in the South.

The most striking part of the craft fair, however, was the near absence of food vendors. There was only one food tent, with a cafeteria line featuring dishes donated by local restaurants or chefs. Most didn't look that great, and those we sampled were only average. The Vermont spice of choice for festival food apparently is sugar. Oh! for a bowl of jambalaya, shrimp on a stick or any of a dozen festival fare treats from Louisiana.

Oh well, the food wasn't the main reason we were there, anyway. The main attraction was the fiddling contest. Billed as the statewide championship, it included six divisions ranging from kids to the old masters. Each group, except the two youngest, had five or so contestants. A fiddle contest follows a fairly specific format. Three tunes, one fast, one slow, and one the player's choice. The tunes were generally short, so the entire competition took only about four hours. About 80% of it sounded the same. The only way I could pick a winner is by a lottery.

We watched (or I should say listened) to them from about 75 yards back in the cheap seats, not because they were free, but because there was shade and the volume was pleasant. We had our dogs with us, and every other person walking by stopped to acknowledge Lucy's cuteness ... She was in dog heaven! I think next time we will set up a booth and invite people pet the cute dog, for only $1.00!