She worries “her” Red Sox will falter

When the Yankees were mentioned in a conversation with Ruth Darr of Torrington Tuesday, she frowned and said, “Well, they won three out of four from my Red Sox, and last night, they beat Baltimore, while the Red Sox lost again ... to the Blue Jays.

She was not happy about that. Having lived for many years near Boston, Ruth is a long-time ardent Red Sox fan. Often a visitor to Fenway Park in those days, she has fond memories of Ted Williams and other stars of that era and before it. “My (late) husband, Chester H. Darr, was a fan too. We always enjoyed the Sox. He was a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel.” They were married more than 70 years. The colonel died in 2011.

Now, she still follows the Sox, but it’s all baseball enjoyment via television. She’s 96, and can’t get to the park as she once did. But she’s on top of it, don’t

worry. Her favorite player is Xander Bogaerts.

“I watch them most nights,” Ruth said. “And I always check before I go to bed and then in the morning.” (Side Street: Ruth Darr becomes annoyed sometimes with her granddaughter, Ashley Tracy, who lives in Milford. “She’s a Yankee fan,” Ruth explained.)

I didn’t tell Ruth, but I’ve been kind of pulled in by the Yankees this year, too. The first half of the season really hooked me, mostly because of the California kid, Aaron Judge. All Rise, indeed.

I doubt that anyone was expecting Judge to continue along as hot as he was right up to the All-Star Game, but the way he has tumbled was alarming and while he was sinking. The Yankees sank with him.

But now, I’m thinking, his bat is beginning to smoke again. Two or three days ago, he blasted a 469-foot homer and finally moved his leagueleading total from 37 to 38. A very good sign, although Ruth Darr won’t like it. The Yanks are on the rise.

Goshen Fair

Labor Day, a beautiful Monday, I revisited the Goshen Fair. Just couldn’t stay away. Had I not gone back for another carton of Art’s French Fries, I would not have felt that I had done my part to make the weekend complete.

(Side street: The carton slipped in my faulty left hand but I caught it against my chest and saved most of the fries while splashing ketchup on the front of my clean shirt. I figured it this way: ketchup will wash out; Art’s fries are not to be wasted. I went away contented and devoured them.)

Church of Christ Congregational of Goshen, as usual, had a booth set up from which to sell smallsized home-made blueberry and apple pies. Laura Day and Donna Devauna were behind the counter. Last year, they said, they sold 635 of the little yumyums. I do not have this year’s count but I’ll bet my new hat it’s close to the ’16 total. The blueberry festival the church holds each autumn is famous around these parts and so are the pies. The church has a large store of 10 or 12-inch pies, which they make in late summer, freeze and sell during the holidays each year.

The booth ladies were nice to me, loaning me a pen and some paper so I could take a few notes. As I headed out, I returned the pen and purchased a pie. Showing great restraint, they did not make fun of the ketchup stains on my shirt.

“Fair People’s Onion Rings” is right across the midway from the pie people. For 11 weeks each year, Stan McGrath said, this onion ring business from Newington does a brisk trade at fairs and carnivals. McGrath is 70. Retired, he used to drive truck for a national firm, Yellow Freight. “There are six of us here this weekend,” he said. “We stay in a camper down in back.”

Next for the ring kings? Bethlehem, Harwinton and Riverton fairs.

You read about Brandon Ives in this space last Sunday, but you didn’t read that he is a former Eagle Scout and is scout master of Goshen’s Troop 35.

The Troop had a major concession at the fair, nine scouts selling every edible grilled thing you can think of, and how these guys do hustle.

Two of them, Mason Mangiaracina and James Vlasto, veteran scouts, filled me in on goings-on in Troop 35.

Enough, already, about food, fried and fairs. Except to say, I hope to see you at the grounds in Harwinton in early October.