It's Children's Day at the Cecil County Fair and with a heat index topping out at 111 degrees, 7-year old Brayden Hauser isn't cherry-coating things.
"It's bothering me a lot," Hauser said.
"It's so hot, but it's fun,” added Brayden’s grandmother, Naomi Glick, “The kids are loving it. There's all kinds of activities going on, and he even got his face painted and it's running, because it's so hot."
In the stifling heat, perhaps 91-year-old Ruth Underwood of North East had the best seat in the house---directly in front of a huge fan, and she said she wouldn't have missed this for the world.
"They're showing milk goats right now, but it's going to be the meat goat that he has, market goat, what they sell afterwards," said Underwood.
The combination of heat and severe thunderstorms is nothing new for the fair. It already had a double dose that took down limbs on Saturday.
"It came rather quickly,” said Fair Director Joyce Barczewski, “It rained very hard. The wind blew. It blew a couple of big branches out of some trees. No damage. A lot of little tents got tangled up, but everybody made it out okay."
So sizzling temperatures or not, the fair will go on here just as it has in the past.
"Honestly, I think the hottest days always wait for the Cecil County Fair to roll around," Rebecca Guetler, who also serves as one of the fair’s directors, said.
She said it could be luck, or it could be Murphy's Law, either way they're prepared for the heat.
"I think so,” she replied, “but we have plenty of ice cold water here, there's ice cream, there's cooling tents and that doesn't seem to stop people from coming out to enjoy it."
"We're drinking lots of water and we're being in the shade with all the animals,” said Emma Yeager, who along with her friend brought five children to the fair, “Petting all the cows and the sheep. We love the Cecil County Fair, right?"
The Cecil County Fair runs through Saturday with such highlights as a truck pull tonight, a rodeo Tuesday and Wednesday and a demolition derby later this week.
