The Washington County Fair

      Around the time that I was twelve, I absolutely fell in love with country music. My parents do not listen to it, and neither do my siblings, so how I got introduced is beyond me. However, that is not the point, the point is that I was a twelve year old little girl who absolutely loved country music...and lived in Rhode Island near the water; about as far from "country" as it gets. I begged and begged for my parents to take me to Nashville to see a real live rodeo, but I clearly was never going to win that argument. Feeling bad, my dad looked around one summer and found the next best thing..the Washington County Fair. It's about as country as Rhode Island gets, and best of all, it had a "rodeo".
     When we got to the fair, I suddenly felt at home. Everybody was wearing cowboy hats and cowgirl boots with plaid shirts..lots and lots of plaid. I could tell my dad felt uncomfortable, but I was already having the time of my life. The crowds were massively huge, and only got larger as we headed towards the livestock and rodeo. That's when I heard it, the obnoxiously loud rumble of an engine of sorts. I looked to my left, and saw the biggest tractor I had ever seen. Without hesitation I looked at my dad and said "forget the horses..I want to see THAT!".
      We made our way over to the tractors, but couldn't get very close for there was a crowd of people in front of us. "Come on daddy! We need to get up front!" I squealed as I yanked my father's arm. But we weren't getting very far. Every inch we moved, we were shoved into somebody's way through all the hustle and bustle of the crowd. Don't forget, it was summer, and boy was it hot...so this meant that every time we were shoved into somebody, we were bumped against people's gross and sweaty bodies.
       While I loved being at my first county fair and seeing the rodeo, animals and hearing country music...the crowds just didn't seem worth it. I was so small, I didn't stand a chance. Also, I was so short that I practically couldn't see anything going on that involved a stage or even the tractors. Im sure if I went again now, my views on the fair would be different..literally. But as it stands, crowds got the best of me that day and we never went back.