I wasn’t going to go; it was chilly and rainy and I had been many times before. The eats and drinks were expensive. Sixteen years ago I went with Cameron and his mother and he was a lot shorter than I; we ate apple burgers in very chilly weather and I remember my leather-soled shoes sucked the cold right into my feet.

Cameron wanted to go, but I gave excuses . . . and then I decided to take one for the team and go for “old time’s sake” for “the family” aspect of it. We walked over and his sister joined us later. We got a Bayou Billy mug and shared lots of refills for a dollar a piece.

And we watched, because Cameron really wanted to do so, the hourly sheep shearing. You know,  it was interesting and the man who sheared was retired for five years, but had been shearing for 57 years. Once he had sheared the stomach, he was able to take the rest of the coat off as one piece. The sheep just sat there, completely docile. He said not all were like that. And when Cameron steered his sister to watch another shearing, we saw a sheep with an attitude. I filmed part of the shearing and I think I accidentally filmed the inside of my pocket as well.

We listened to some musicians in the Swine Barn, which they have a fancier name for when the festival is on and then listened to a really good quartet, which included a man and his daughter. The father had performed professionally on cruise ships and elsewhere and the daughter graduated from a Boston college that specialized in musical training – like you have to be very good to even get in. You know music is being performed well when even a tone deaf person truly appreciates it.

Actually, if I were able to carry a tune, I would probably be jealous of the singers for being so good; however, when you’re as clueless as I am (bad), you just embrace it and appreciate someone who can actually do this thing they call singing.

Then we ate a pretzel with cheddar cheese, but I think they were running low on the cheddar because there was a distinct jalapeno twang to the dip. I guess sitting on hay  bales – or is it straw? – and having your tongue tingle will become one of our memories.

But guess what? Yes, they had no apple burgers!!!!!! How could that be?