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Labor Day Weekend

I used to look forward to this weekend so much! The Grayson County Fair at Leitchfield (my home town) is always held on this weekend, and that was an event we always looked forward to! As a teen-ager, my Mother and I always went to the Miss Grayson County Beauty Contest which was held on the opening night of the Fair, and during a couple of years, I worked in the Young Republicans Booth selling hot dogs and cokes during the fair days with my brother Don. We thought we were so grown up doing that!

After I was married, I always took my crafts, my hobbies, my canned goods and baking to the Women's Building on the afternoon of the opening day. Back then, the Grayson County Homemakers, a group of which I belonged to, sponsored the Women's Bldng and encouraged all residents to bring their best wares to have them judged. I took quilts, dolls, cross-stitching, embroidery and counted cross-stitching; anything I (or my family) had made that I was especially proud of, and wanted to "show off". The display shelves would be overflowing with wonderful hand-made goodies from the talented county residents, and it was always fun to see what my neighbors had been up to during the year!

Each year, I always hoped that maybe this would be the year, I would accumulate enough points on my entries to win one of the coveted silver trays! I never did but I did usually always win 1st, 2nd or 3rd place ribbons on most everything I entered. I think the one thing, I was most proud of was the year my green beans won the coveted 1st place blue ribbon! I had always wondered how could they judge one winner out of 50 or 60 quart jars of green beans which basically looked identical. The year mine finally won, as I did one of my last cannings of green beans for the season, I took the best looking beans I had, selected the ones which were uniform in size, laid them out by a ruler on the counter, and sliced them up diagonally with a sharp knife. Each little segment in that jar was absolutely perfect...and believe it or not, that jar won First Place!!!! That jar of green beans with its blue ribbon sat proudly on display in my kitchen for many years!

The money I would win from my fair entries, though it wasn't much, always enabled me to give each of my sons a little extra money when we went to the Demolition Derby at the fair on Friday night. The weekend, always concluded with the big Labor Day Parade on Monday. My brothers and I with our families would always meet at Mama and Daddy's house, then we would walk down to the corner of the main street to watch the parade of marching bands, floats, tractors, cars and horses.
Those really were the days, and I really do miss them!

A couple of years ago, after Gary and I were married, we started a new fair tradition. As my oldest son's birthday is August 31st, we would take my son's and their families (minus Nicholas who has never been home on Labor Day since he joined the Navy) to the fair. We would meet at Mr Gatti's to fill up on pizza before we went to the Demolition Derby on Friday night. But alas, it seems this tradition was short-lived for this year with our finances being limited since DH has been laid off for most of the year, we were not able to do this. I guess, it really wasn't that a big deal to my kids for none of them have even called about it this week but I have been a little sad about that most all week. Anyway, after all of this ramblin, the point is that I am sitting here alone, pounding on the keyboard and reminiscing about precious memories of my heart when it is an absolutely beautiful day outside! I need to get up off this fat butt of mine and go out to make some new memories!

Before I do that, let me wish you a wonderful Labor Day weekend filled with lots of memory-making moments! And I would like to share a little freebie with you as well. This is a QP I think I may have posted in the past but I cleaned it up a bit...I think it looks much better so replace that old one, if you have it! I used

the Whimsical Angel of Love Mini Kits by Kimberly Stewart
In Kimmi's Whimsical Angels of Love there is a series of four mini kits which add a wonderfully sweet addition to your digital scrapbooking stash because they are perfect for all of those special photos of your loved ones just waiting to be scrapped. The precious, quirky angels are perfect to use to create those unique cards, sweet crafts and or layouts of the ones that you cherish. 


NO LONGER AVAILABLE



Comments

Montana said…
Wow! I can't beleive how beautiful, your layout, is! I adore the birdies singing in the background! :)
Debbie said…
Thank you so much and I am glad you liked it Montana. I will return to the Tenderly themed blog I am sure as I too love it but with the changing of the seasons coming upon us, I thought it was time to change my blog as well, i hope you enjoy it as well and hope you visit with me again soon!
MouserMo said…
Thank you for freebies. Link on your post was added to PickleMouse freebie list
CBH said…
Thank you so much for this post. I want to let you know that I posted a link to your blog in CBH Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, under the Quick Page(s) post on Sep. 05, 2010. Thanks again.
Awwwww, Debbie! I'm sorry it's such sadness to miss the fair! Maybe you and Gary can go by yourselves this year? Or take the kiddos on kid's day? It's hard to see our traditions change yet new ones take their place and sometimes that's even nicer! Thanks so much for the pretty quickpage and enjoy a gorgeous day!
Love & Hugs,
Lisa
Denise said…
I knew I was missing a conversation somewhere. I saw some postings that came "after" this story. Now I know what everyone was talking about. I'm so sorry that the economy hit so bad for you at home. However, that doesn't mean it has to stay that way forever. Start that tradition of going just with DH each year and find new things to do to create your own memories together!

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