My wife and I spent the day at the local county fair. It was a good old-fashioned county fair.

There were pigs, cows, sheep, cattle, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and chickens.

There was a horse show with fancy hitches.

Even a queen of the fair contest.

There were midway barkers trying to get you to try your luck popping balloons, squirting water in a clown’s mouth, tossing rings over bottles, and even trying to land ping pong balls into water filled bowls each of which had a fish. I guess if you succeeded you got the fish.

There were midway rides; not as stomach churning as those at the big theme parks but plenty sickening given the heat of the day and the food that would have been consumed before.

Speaking of food: Elephant ears, foot long hot dogs, pizza, burgers, brats, donuts, cotton candy, ice cream, gyros, tacos, etc. etc. At that was just from the commercial vendors. Local service clubs turned out their specialties – corn in the husk, strawberry shortcake, grilled chicken, pulled pork sandwiches – I’m getting hungry recalling it all.

What does this all have to do with HVAC? Well, there were probably close to a dozen local HVAC companies with displays set up, one even having a unit running inside a tent that had cold air strips in front.

Fair sponsors said attendance was up this year as the economy prevented many longer vacation trips in the summer.

Hmmm, local folks staying near home and despite the high heat heading to the fair. Sounds like county fairs are a place for contractors to spend the word these days.