It’s time I gave some love to the Little World’s Fair. I have so many years of memories there, driving up Route 55 and turning under that little covered bridge in Grahamsville. I can remember being little and thinking of it like a portal to the fairgrounds, past which all the fun awaited.

This year it was a little drizzly, and we parked in some slippery grass on the side of the hill. The rain didn’t deter very many of us, and the narrow footbridge side entrance was about as crowded as anywhere in Sullivan County can get. When you enter that way, the first vendor you see is the Daniel Pierce Library, offering two wonderful things: books and strawberry shortcake.

I must admit, even as a book lover, I make a beeline for the dessert. It’s so good. The whipped cream is thick and sweet, and the berries are just a little bit frozen – pure summer. It’s worth the trip to the fair just for that, trust me.

But that’s only stop number one. A little farther down is the knife booth, where my father bought genuine Schrade pocket knives for me and my sister ages ago. We get them sharpened every year, then bring them down nice and shiny for a new semester in the big city (don’t worry – I only use mine to open packages).

I haven’t been on the rides in years. That’s something we get out of our system at the Ulster County Fair, where they’re bigger and scarier. At the Little World’s Fair, there are better spectacles. My favorite is the pig race. It is just barely controlled chaos. The announcer is an eleven-year-old girl. The pigs wear headbands. Sometimes the smallest piglets get so mixed up they turn around and stumble over each other back to the starting line. That’s when the handlers step in and shoo them back in the right direction. Sprinkle in a few “pig facts” and some cringy puns and that’s the whole show. I’m telling you, the crowd cheers like it’s a Triple Crown horse race, and those pigs deserve it.

More curiosities await in the flea market section, where the products range from cute to kitschy and back again. I have a little sign in my bathroom now that reads “Powder Room” in cursive – the kind of thing you do not need but seems overwhelmingly tempting in the moment. In my defense, it has pretty flowers painted on it. But beware, the silly knick-knacks will call to you.

If you didn’t make it this year, I encourage you to check out the Little World’s Fair next time. It always happens on the third weekend in August, at that point when you can smell autumn, but can’t quite see it yet. So, you go to the fair and pretend that summer will never end, even though the breeze is cold and the wet grass stuck to your shoes has that late summer scent. You wear your shorts, eat your strawberries frozen, and look the other way. It hasn’t failed me yet.