The Weekend in Review: Apple Harvest Festival Part 2

                As the Southington Apple Harvest Festival came to a close in its second weekend, I saw something I hadn’t seen the previous year:  the changing of the booths.   Some vendors apparently only rented their table space for the first weekend, which sort of mixed things up nicely going into the second weekend and gave visitors a chance to see something they hadn’t seen before as well.

                Where there was once a table on how to save money on your heating bill as well as a zumba class, there now existed two new spots which were kind of funny to be put next to each other I thought.

                On the left, we have psychics, which are not uncommon in Connecticut and somehow stay in business by means which no one can explain.   Next to them were people who wanted to talk to you about Obamacare.   I was going to make some sort of joke about the psychics predicting the future of Obamacare, but I’ll let your own imagination run wild.

                Also, on Sunday, the psychics never showed up so I’m not sure what that prediction encompassed.  The weather was nice enough and a lot of people were out, plus I would have chatted them up and written about the experience here… which is probably why their psychic intuitions told them to stay home.

                The line for apple fritters never seemed to diminish and I overheard someone at a booth tell someone else how to beat the line.  He said if you asked someone in line how many dozen they were buying, you should offer to pay for them and your own, which would allow you to cut the line.   Though he might have said this only in jest, I’m sure there would be a large amount of angry people behind you that would not want you to participate in such activity. 

                Of all the free things businesses give away at events like this, I have to say that the most popular item seems to be a simple pen.   People could come home with any number of pens following something like this, especially if you use the pen to fill out a raffle form and then walk off with it. 

                My suggestion for next year is that someone gives out free pen holders.  A slightly larger version of the free Walgreens cup would suffice.  While collecting all of these various pens, the company that stands out will be the one who puts them all into a fitting place.  Plus, your logo will then be prominently displayed in households across the state.

                With all of the raffles going on, I was tricked several times into thinking signs said “free waffles”, so if someone wants to give out some waffles next year too it might be worth the time and money spent.  I’m looking at you, Price Chopper.