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August 25, 2000
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There's a fair in Filetto. Tonight is the last night
and Renato Sr. suggests we go there for dinner. I've
been to the fair before, but I've never eaten there
and I'd like to try it. There are huge grills set up
where smoky, sooty cooks barbecue steaks, pork ribs
and chicken. Long picnic tables are set up under big
white tents, and whole familes, including infants and
pets, sit together munching on the greasy but delicious
meat. I can't wait -- my stomach is growling before
we're anywhere near the food tents.
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But first I want to ride on the bumper cars. Last year
they wouldn't let my son ride -- they said he was too
short. See him above right, smiling with his dad by
his side? This was taken only after he recovered from
his first bumper car injury, which had him in tears
and clutching his ribs.
Once we've worked up an appetite, we head to the food
tents. I'm sorry I don't have a better picture of the
tents and the food. It actually turned out to be quite
an ordeal eating there. There was confusion about how
to order the food; whether you were supposed to sit
and wait to be served, or whether you were supposed
to stand on a line which did not seem to move (maybe
you can make it out in the background of the picture
below).
It turned out that in one tent you were
supposed to sit and wait to be served -- but in that
tent you couldn't find a seat. In the other tent, where
there were plenty of seats, you were supposed to wait
on a line with your order, hand it to a server when
you got to the front, then sit down and wait for them
to bring it to you. Fabulous confusion, Italian-style.
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Renato went to stand on the line that did not move,
while the boy and I suffered the torture of sitting
at a table watching those who had arrived two hours
earlier than us wolf down their barbecue. By the time
we got ours we were starving. I didn't get pictures
of it because I could not wait even the two seconds
it would have taken to snap a shot. Besides, you all
know what barbecue looks like anyway.
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There was a car show where I overheard
a dealer telling a potential customer, "I can
make a special deal for you tonight -- tomorrow I can't
do anything." (Car dealers are car dealers,
no matter where you are.) There was a landscaping show,
a kitchen fixtures show, a farm implement show -- in
case you needed a new, portable, rabbit hutch in a hurry.
There was a pet stand where my son begged me to buy
him these tiny acquatic turtles. He asks for these every
year and last year I told him we'd get some when we
returned to New York. But then I found out that they're
illegal. The guy at the Petco told me that turtles need
to be a minimum of 4" in length to be sold legally
in the U.S. I don't know why.
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The only thing we bought was the candy.
Torrone and nut-brittles of hazelnut, walnut, peanuts
-- even pignoli -- made on the spot for me; gummy starfish,
gummy sharks, gummy fried-eggs, and gummy worms for
the boy.
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