Nothing says West Tisbury summer more than the Agricultural Fair, which opens Thursday, August 15 through Sunday, August 18. Many of us have been preparing for months, whether to finish making a sweater to enter in the knitting competition, hurling a frying pan across the back field or whispering encouragement to that one large tomato ripening to red on the vine. Or shampooing and massaging a favorite cow to guarantee that she is the prettiest Angus in the livestock barn.

There are special memories. I could have spent all day in front of the booth where someone’s accurate pitch could dunk a selectman or a building inspector into the tub of water below, for all to see.

A different memory — I was in the hall to judge the crafts table. The hall was closed to the public until the judging was complete. But then the door opened and Jackie Onassis was escorted inside. She slowly moved around, admiring that just-finished sweater, that ripe tomato, that fabulous sunset photograph. Not a murmur was heard in the hall.

Timothy, my husband, recalls a bittersweet memory of the fair in the late 1950s or so. An aerialist, The Great Lamar, was a literal showstopper in his day. The first year, Tim says, the entire fair shut down for Lamar’s grand entrance. The music stopped. The ponies stopped circling the merry-go-round. All eyes looked up to admire the acrobat as he gingerly walked his tightrope above the fairgrounds.

The second summer, the mechanics of the fair continued to churn, but, respectfully, the music was turned off as The Great Lamar walked his tightrope.

In year three, The Great Lamar was back but the fair continued to function, the games continued to be won and lost and debated, the merry-go-round circled, its organ still grinding out its circus music. That was the last of the elevated performer.

Happy Birthday on Friday, August 9, to Bea Whiting and Nicole Alley. On Monday, August 12, Amelia Smith celebrates, and on Wednesday, August 14, birthday wishes go out to Christine Gault and Bonnie Menton.

Clarissa Murphy was home for the weekend to visit her mother Laura Murphy and to attend a bridal shower for Abigail Larsen. Clarissa has a new job. She is the manager of the new Parkside Bookshop opening soon in the Boston area.

Congratulations and thank you to all the volunteers who collected, arranged, sold and grossed a sweet $25,000 worth of merch at the library’s annual book sale last week.

Nova Smith is home from camp in New Hampshire and her brother Christopher is back after spending the early summer with his father Mike Craughwell in Bloomington, Ill.. Heading west, Mike and Chris diverted their route to see Niagara Falls and later visited a renaissance festival in Wisconsin. Back home, both Christopher and Nova plan to work at the fair. Christopher has signed up to collect trash, which pays a princely $12 an hour. Youngsters who volunteer to work in the barn are offered only a one-day pass, no money. Those who help in the hall before the fair opens are given a pass and a T-shirt. Hmm, wasn’t trash disposal the business that enriched Tony Soprano?

Still, working at the fair is a rite of passage for many up-Island kids. Some who are signed up include Jocelyn Smyth, Irina Kuhn, Tanner Weiss, Emme Carroll and Owen Price. Lily Haynes and her sister Hannah will be working at the fair, a family tradition. Lily will work in the hall, where in past years she assisted the hall manager, her aunt Janice.

See you at the fair, as they say.