Meet Me At The Fair 1-31-18

MORE OLD TIMEY STUFF

Meet Me At The Fair - Excerpt from my Book 1-31-18

After swimming Portsmouth Harbor, Charlie's fame rode high for two weeks. It might have lasted longer but another big event was coming up which took over all the talk and plans. The Local Fair. It was always held on the week of 4th of July at the fairgrounds on the outskirts of Portsmouth. It included all the fair stuff, a regional carnival with rides, 4-H, local groups and contests, and we Scouts would be there, with two game booths of our own and demonstrations of our Scout know how. So many years have passed as I write this, that I don't remember whether it was a County Fair or just a Portsmouth Fair but it was big and memorable that's for sure.

Charlie's fame lived on down at the tavern and his fathers proclamation "No one will make fun of my Charley after this!", came true. Charlie could still not hit a ball or run bases, but he had found a niche and the kids at school left hem alone. Boys wanting to join the swim team would ask Charley to tutor them and he would, and the coach would accept them right away no questions asked. Someone in the newspaper sent the tavern a big 8x10 photograph of Charlie with his blue woollies dripping water on the pier and wearing the bronze medal and grinning ear to ear. The picture was B&W but everyone knew the woollies were really blue, and it leaned against the big mirror behind the bar on a glass shelf, and was toasted more than once a day by someone. We never found out who in the tavern won the Pool for Charlie's time against the clock.

WE DID learn about the Navy pool,  Bosun Beecher won over $500 a tidy sum back in 1956. Bosun Beecher known on deck as BB Beecher was that Coast Guardsman who from a deck hollered "One of them pilot whales is Blue!" and we sniggered. Charlie was the best Scout for signaling with flags or Morse code and the Navy guys would flag him or flash him with signal lights. Charlie's Dad from the hardware made him one from a short length of stovepipe and a damper in it he could flip and send code like the Big shuttered ones on the ships. Stovepipe was 6 inches and the big battery lantern just fit in the end of it.. you know.. those lanterns with a square battery on the bottom. Charlie was going to demonstrate flagging and sending code at the fair.

The Scout Fair plans were gearing up. The carnival had a shooting booth with BB guns that you had to shoot out a star in a paper target. We made a slingshot shooting booth and all the Scouts brought in their slingshots. For ammo we would shoot golf balls (from the hardware) which we hoped would be softer than rocks. Targets would be big quart tomato soup cans weighted withy cement in the bottom. You  know the carnival game to knock over milk bottles with a baseball? Those bottles are weighted to make them just barely able to topple. We mixed up brick mortar (also from the hardware) and added 1 cup to each can quarter full of it. We Scouts tested it and from 15 feet we could barely knock one over if we hit it right at the very top below the rim. We had choice of 3 prizes, pocket knives, compasses, and a small fire starting kit. Each cost less than $1 retail and Charlie's dad was ordering a box of each wholesale at .60 cents each. The game would give 3 golf balls for $1 and we hoped one out of ten would win.. making us Scout money.

The second game was a pitch game. A table was covered with pint mason jelly jars (from my mother) and a player stood at the counter and tossed ping-pong balls to try to get one in a jar. Those little buggers would not go in unless you got them centered and even then,  if the ball fell very far, it would bounce out again. Same as the other game 3 balls for $1. Prizes were more cool Scouting stuff.. colorful bandannas, and Charlie would be teaching flagging. Signal mirrors, compasses, more fire starting kits, plastic star charts for the constellations, hand pocket fishing kits with line sinkers and hooks (everyone young and old fished), and the pocket knives. After thinking we decided to use all the same prizes at both games.

Before Charley swam, there was discussion of a Scout Camp Out and those who sailed wanted to do it taking the Dory up the coast 100 miles and back. It would be our longest sailing trip ever and would take 8 days round trip. It would be safe enough, we would sail close to shore out of reach of the rocks and shoals less than a mile out. If weather got bad we could come in and tie up to a tree  on shore. There was a big argument over this which lasted at the Scout room several days.

See, right after I joined Scouts Mister Hall the Scoutmaster had the idea for our troop to build the Dory. He hoped all the Scouts would become sailors. Everyone tried it and sailed a bunch of times but gradually they turned to land things and we became fewer until there were only seven of us who were avid sailors. Now again the rest of the troop opted to camp out on land and little Johnson Browns family had a dairy farm on the outskirts of Portsmouth and we all had US Army Surplus 2 man Pup-Tents. After a week of arguing, Mister Hall agreed there was no reason not to do both. The boat could make an 'expedition' and the rest would camp on Johnson Brown's family farm a couple weeks after the Fair ended.

Johnson brown was cheerfully known by all of us as "Little Johnnie Brown" and we had rhymes to prove it. "Johnny brown's body lies a' molding in his grave" was a popular one but done in good sport and no meanness and he would laugh with all of us. He was bringing 2 cows to the Fair for 4-H and he planned to demonstrate milking at the Scout exhibit. I grinned at the thought, remembering my own milking and being 'cow-kicked'.

Small fireworks weren't really legal in Old Portsmouth but everyone had some sparklers and small firecrackers to which the Fire Department looked the other way.. but NO M-80s or bottle rockets.

July 4th fell on Wednesday in 1956 and the Fair would run from Monday the 2nd to Saturday the 7th and we Scouts all assembled at the Fairground Monday morning to set up our two booths and fence in an area with ropes where Scouts would demonstrate skills, fire starting, flagging, Morse code, first aid, the cow milking, and answering questions about sailing and swimming and whatever. We were all keyed-up with excitement running high and were open for business by 10 AM an hour after the Fair opened. Three Scouts would watch our exhibit and we would take turns so everyone could walk around and see stuff while we waited for the Carnival to open and ride the Octopus and Dive Bomber (aka the vomit comet).

Johnnie Brown won one Red and one Blue ribbon for his two Holstein Heifers and was grinning like a Cat. Pokey and I wandered inside where His Mom and My Mother had quilts and canned goods and homemade pies entered. They were all set up and their things numbered and were sitting behind a table drinking coffee and eating homemade donuts. Pokey's wishful expression got us some too. Eleven AM arrived and the Rides were getting started and would run from 11AM to 11PM. We decided to ride two of them now and wait and ride all of them at night which was way more fun.

Most of us went back to our exhibit and we played at shooting slingshots and sinking ping-pong balls to sucker others to come and play the games. Robbie had talked to one 'carnie' who said it worked better if your games always looked busy. Robbie also came back with another cool idea. Hide a prize in each of the cans that they could win when they knocked it over. Perfect since all of our prizes were small.

Johnson Brown had his two heifers tied inside the roped in area each wearing their Ribbon and taking on 'petters'. Parents sat little kids on the cows and took their picture. I found myself wishing Old Sam was here he would surely draw a crowd. He pulled up a stool and milked into a small shiny pail to the squeals of school girls and laughter of boys. He offered tastes of fresh warm milk right from the cow in little Dixie cups and a number were brave enough to taste it with the rich cream and all. He had a surprise.. he drew a small bottle from his pocket and shook a squirt in the milk and mate it Vanilla Cream!

Charlie was set up to demonstrate flagging. Flagging is also called semaphore flags' and it is holding flags in different positions to send letters of the alphabet sort of like Morse code but shorter. The Navy guys were impressed with Charlie's sending because he snapped each letter crisp and even and he was as fast as them. BB Beecher showed up grinning and was playing at demonstrating with Charley some 300 yards apart. The Navy had sort of adopted us Scouts.

Robbie was showing how to start fires three ways without matches and had a group of kids watching while he started fires with a magnifying glass, flint and steel, and with a small bow that twirled a stick. "Oye!" said Shawn O'Donell, "wie ya look at Robbie now! Right handy startin' fires!  He might get recruited by the IRA!.  Wi could burn them Limeys right oot a Ireland!"

I didn't know Pokey could do anything special, but he sat on a stool and pulled out a mouth organ and started to play songs that would pull tears right out of you. All kinds of songs, oldies from the Civil War and new Blues the black folks and the rest of us liked too. His foot stomped rhythm on a washtub while he played and he soon had a small crowd gathered.. right in front of our two game booths. Three older black boys in sailor suits stomped and clapped and sang a cappella sounds to the black songs.. mournful and harmonious and made you wanna move your feet. Two or three black kids were dancing right there. He played for more than half an hour and finishes with thunderous applause and more than one threw him money. He continued to make mini-shows about every hour or so until we closed. I saw him grinning at 11PM counting money he had collected in one of the slingshot tomato cans,mostly quarters and a lot of dollar bills.

We rode some rides before closing and then packed up and headed home all beat from the day we knew would repeat for the next 5 days. Wednesday the 4th would be the highlight with fireworks being shot off at 9PM.

The 4th started with a parade and then the fair and the fireworks. Robbie was a bit of a prankster. Hi father said "Aye, he has a bit of the wee people in him, but he has a good heart!"

Shawn O'Donell was to play the bagpipes in the parade garbed in his kilt of O'Donell Tarten with the firemen. Unbeknown to him, Robbie had sort-of sabotaged his bagpipes. He took off the chanter (the flute part) and poured a whole bottle of bubble stuff into the bag. Now Shawn O'Donnel was marching briskly like pipers do,  and all that sloshing worked up that bubble stuff and suddenly bubbles started flying up out of the pipes! It kind-of reminded us of champagne music bubbles on the Lawrence Welk show! Shawn O'Donnel did not see that right away. He saw the crowds reaction and thought they like his playing so he put some gusto into it. Then bubbles started shooting out of the flute part in front of him. He stopped speechless, then he shouted "Ach, tis you Robbie O'Donnel, you wee Leperchaun!" He started laughing and started piping again, complete with bubbles, all the way to the fairground.

Charlie's two weeks of Fame had already faded into the background everywhere except the Tavern where he stood behind the bar in that picture wearing wet woollies. "Here's ta you laddie" toasted Robbie's dad "For a wee swim well done!"

Copyright 2018 by Daniel Blankley. All rights reserved.

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