Those were the days, weren’t they?! Hard as it is to believe now, but the local weekly paper was the main source of news about events in Tynedale. And wasn’t everyone eager to participate in the publicity?
It seemed like everything was going right for the community, and the Allendale Lions were in the middle of it. This year’s fair was all about hats. It may have been harking back to the big green hats that were so much a part of the Irish themed fair several years previous, or it may have been a continuation of the best Easter bonnet concept, but whatever sparked the idea, it was definitely a hook to, well, hang your hat on.
On a personal note, it brings a lump to our throats to see that Carrie and I were just about ready to launch the café adjoining the Allendale Bakery down at Allen Mill, in the run-up to the fair proper. We had special hats made up too, baker’s hats with a bright yellow sun emblazoned on a soft green background. I imagine we were too busy down at the bakery to even think about helping out at the fair. But we were certainly participating in the fair theme, after all, ‘wearing a hat for the Fair.’
So we’d have had to wait for the debrief, and the report of the event, in the first Courant issue after the big weekend. I’m not even confident that we’d have been very involved in the planning, as we were that committed to getting the bakery and café going. Everything else seemed to pass us by over that time.
But things did move forward on many fronts at the same time.