Colebrook Fair
Way back in the old days, during the darkest days of World War II, a teacher noticed the stress her students were enduring with fathers and brothers absent on foreign battlefields.
To lighten the mood, Ruth Bushnell, teacher of grades 5 through 8 at the two-room Center School, assigned the children the task of organizing a community fair. The fair was small, with only a bandstand, a fortune teller and tables with farm products and crafts. A frog jumping contest was among its most popular attractions.
The late Town Historian Robert Griggs recalled the popular events’ origins. “Jimmy Mills, although only an 8th grader, was quite accomplished with carpenter’s tools,” he recalled, “and made a band/stage platform, a small house for Rosemary Larson, the school “Fortuneteller” and tables to hold farm produce and craft items.”
The children were cheered on by parents and grandparents–-mostly female, as there were few men who were not in the service. So popular was the event that it had to be done again the following year. It was assumed the second fair would be much the same but success breeds success and, when the day of the fair dawned, cars began arriving.
According to Griggs, “Soon there were autos parked on both sides of the road from the top of the hill by Colebrook Road to the crest of the hill by the Carrington houses. It seemed to the children that the entire town was there and, in actuality, that was not far from the truth.”
The Colebrook Associates, a civic organization, took note and the following year with soldiers returning, the event was turned into a true community affair. Professional bands provided dance music into the small hours; there were booths for food, beverages, crafts and the like.
The dye was cast. Like Brigadoon, the slumbering town of Colebrook springs to life each year on the Saturday before Labor Day, shimmering for a day under the September sun, before retreating once again, like a dream.
Colebrook Associates conducted the fair for more than half a center before turning the reins over to the Town in 2012. The fair had gradually lost its energy but under the new leadership, it got a renewed infusion of enthusiasm. Old favorites were retained, and new events were created—including the whimsical Cardboard Regatta for which area residents craft seaworthy boats from large sheets of cardboard, decorate them to their own taste, and attempt to paddle across the town pond and back again without sinking—all to the good-natured cheers of onlookers.
The fair returns this year for the 78th time on Saturday, September 2nd, 9AM. to 3PM. As it has for the past decade, the day will feature a row of vendors along Smith Hill Road and on the meetinghouse green. There will be food vendors, the ever-popular frog-jumping contest, a pet parade, car show, touch-a-truck and the always hilarious Regatta at the end of the day.
The Senior and Community Center is planning its pie sale and is seeking both donations of baked goods and volunteers. Call the center at 860-738-9521 or stop by to sign up.
Registration for the Cardboard Regatta is $10 and includes kits consisting of three sheets of cardboard, approximately 30-by-72 inches and two rolls of duct tape, all available at Town Hall. For information, call 860-379-3359, extension 201.
Registration for the pet parade and frog-jumping contest starts at 9AM on the day of the fair. Children who want to take part in the frog-jumping contest don’t even need to bring their own amphibians because “rent-a-frogs” are available.
Registration for the car show, which runs from 9AM to 2PM rain or shine, is also $10. The first 100 vehicles receive dash plaques and trophies and prizes will be awarded. The show is open to all kinds of vehicles, vintage and modern and will be held on the recreation area on Coopers Road.
For information go to the fair’s Facebook page. Parking is free and there is no admission to the fair.
