My Love for County Fairs & Marietta County Fair Book Series Giveaway
Well it’s that time again for so many country folk like me.
What you say?
County Fair time, that’s what time it is!
Our County Fair has always been one of my best memories as a child.
I remember as a little girl, I couldn’t stand the anticipation leading up to that week. See, growing up my family had very little money. Going to the County Fair was like a vacation to us, but the catch was we could only go one night.
It was way to expensive for a family of six to attend more than that one time. It seemed we always picked Saturday to go. I’m not sure why unless it was because it was the weekend and it was a day that my daddy didn’t work.
I can remember this one year, I was probably eight or nine years old, and I had been waiting for the fair all week.
My favorite thing of all time was getting a Caramel Apple and riding the Tilt of Whirl!
Saturday came and my family was so excited. I envisioned all day about the lights, the smells, the animals, the beauty pageant contestants and the people.
Well, maybe not so much the people. Carnie’s (that’s what us Arkansas folk call the carnival workers) were pretty rough looking people even when I was a child.
Anyway, back to my story, I was so excited, we were all ready to walk out the door when my stomach started hurting. I thought well it’s just from being so excited, but nope, a minute later my lunch was on the floor.
My mom went to clean me up so we could go ahead and leave, (remember this was Saturday, the last day of the fair), but my stomach had other plans.
I can remember being so disappointed, but worse than that was my parents wouldn’t let anyone go if I couldn’t go. I was the baby of the family and they didn’t think it was fair for my sisters to have fun if I didn’t get to. I thought it was unfair for them to not get to go just because I was sick.
But even after that bad experience, the fair has still been one of my most favorite times of year.
It has been a family tradition that I have carried on with my own children. I love seeing my children’s eyes light up as the sun sets and the moon is out and the bright lights from the rides shine like New York City.
See, in a rural area as we live in, the County Fair is one of the biggest highlights of the year.
I decided this year, leading up to the fair, I wanted to recreate some of the yummy, fattening foods you might find at the fair.
Of course, Homemade Corn Dogs are one of our most favorite to recreate.
But this year I also wanted to do something completely off the charts. Something that would have my family and friends saying, “What in the world was she thinking?”
And yes, I think I accomplished that with my (Now Famous), Are you ready for this?, “Deep Fried CUPCAKES!!!”
Of yes I did!
I filled cupcakes with my homemade buttercream frosting and deep-friend those suckers in my favorite sweet batter recipe!
Oh, oh, oh!
My family and friends were in Complete and Utter AWE!
Can we say, YUM, YUM, YUM! But I guarantee it only takes one, two tops before you are saying, “Whoa, hold up, I’m having a sweetness overload!”
This year I was introduced to a series of books called “Marietta Fair Series”.
Well, first of all I love to read romance books, but when you add County Fairs and Cowboys to the mix, well I’m a gonner for sure.
There is a total of 5 books in the “Marietta Fair Series”.
Beauty and The Cowboy Montana Born Fair by Nancy Robards Thompson
Cowgirl Come Home Montana Born Fair by Debra Salonen
For the Love of a Cowboy Montana Born Fair by Yvonne Lindsay
Her Summer Cowboy Montana Born Fair by Katherine Garbera
A Fair to Remember Montana Born Fair by Barbara Ankrum
I had the opportunity by each of these wonderful and talented authors to review their books.
My, Oh My, what fun this has been while I was enjoying my own County Fair I was envisioning the Marietta County Fair and the characters that each played a part in their stories.
In “Beauty and the Cowboy”, I can honestly say, the turn of events were so surprising.
