One day until I have me some peach ice cream

I love local festivals - especially those that celebrate harvests. Maybe it has something to do with spending more than a few years in a town that proudly celebrates a livestock show with a huge ferris wheel and cotton candy. When my family lived in Abilene, we went to the Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater. I never did eat any rattlesnake, but I did get to see the ones they caught.

One of the neat things about these local festivals is that, besides sampling the harvest, you get to see the beauty... uh.... scholarship pageants. The winners get to do things like ride on the floats at the holiday parades of neighboring towns (and, I suppose, attend college). You have Miss Snakecharmer in Sweetwater, the Strawberry Queen in Poteet, the Apple Queen in Medina*... you get the idea. It's great!

I know it's cheesy and more than a little silly, but I really like going to these small towns to sample the food and see the people. Most of the time there's a little carnival. I'm sure that for kids that grow up in these places the fair seems kind of lame after the first few years. For me, though, it's pretty neat and I'm not ashamed that I kind of look forward to the Peach Festival and its accoutrements every year. I'm possibly the only girl in Texas with tickets to the Houston Opera and the Parker County Peach Festival circled on my calendar, but I'm also possibly the happiest girl around. ;)

*As far as I know Luling doesn't crown royalty for its Watermelon Thump, but it does sponsor several seed-spitting contests. I've yet to make it down, though - I'm allergic to watermelon.