In these last few days of summer, I’ve been looking for some things to do to keep my son (and myself) busy. The request “What are we going to do today, Daddy?” comes only second to his favourite sentence of all time “Daddy, I’m hungry”. So, when I saw that the Stirling Fair was happening this weekend, I thought we’d go check it out. The initial plan was to go see the monster trucks on Saturday night, but the rain kept us at home. Although I learned afterward that the rain had stopped and the show went ahead. Oh well… on to plan B: Demo Derby. Or as my son initially called it “Roller Derby”, which I have to say does make sense, making it even harder to convince him that’s not what it’s called.

Not many people were taking pictures of the water truck, myself included… OK, OK, I was the only one taking pictures of the water truck and everyone around me looked at me like I was such a noob. But as I watched it go around the track spreading water on the dirt, I couldn’t help but think that this was really the Zamboni of “Roller Derby”, so I had to grab a shot.

Although we arrived early, the stands were already packed, so we made our way around the track to the far side hoping to find a spot somewhere to sit down. Eventually we found an entire top row open so we climbed up, despite the fact that the entire back railing had given way and I sat there waiting for our imminent fall for the entire derby. In between heats, I found myself composing headlines for the paper such as “Photographer’s camera critically injured after bleachers collapse at Stirling fair.” I guess I should be more concerned about my own safety.

Although I was a little concerned about dying in a pile of old boards and rusty nails, we stuck it out on the wacky shack for two reasons: 1) We had nowhere else to sit and 2) From this side of the track, the light was amazing with the sunset behind us, we had a great view, and we had a cool background with the fair. Again, I guess I should more concerned about my own safety…

Needless to say, we made it out of the fairgrounds unscathed, and I even got a few photos despite my son constantly poking me in the arm to let me know that cars were smashing. These photos in fact: