Old Home Days

All images by PepperKey Stacie

On a road trip through New Brunswick, not long after traveling east across the province to the coast passing fewer than a half dozen cars in three hours, we suddenly hit traffic.  Bumber to bumper cars, some of them decorated in parade style, all of them full of cheerful people who were in celebration mode.  Rows and rows of colorful flags draped across the small town two lane highway, repeated every few hundred yards.   As our road trip came to a slow crawl we had ample opportunity to look around; most of the houses lining the road were adorned with the same strands of colorful flags, the kind that you often hang to draw attention to an open house.  As we inched closer to what I later discovered was the town of Tabusintac, many of the houses boasted family reunion signs and crowds of people picnicing on the front lawns.  Several people were perched on their front porches, or reclining in their lawn chairs, waving at all the traffic go by.  Were we somehow mixed into the parade?  What exactly was going on?  The entire town was having a family reunion?  We passed what looked to be a fairgound with tents set up, old cars parked in the front, and a big sign reading "Old Home Days."  I so wanted to be part of the fun; maybe we should stop and pretend we are long lost cousins? 
  After googling the phrase I desperately regret not stopping.  Check out the schedule!  Country market, salmon supper, quilt show, Durty Nelly Dance, antique car show, Thirsty Rangers Welcome Home, corn boil, pancake breakfast, Wheel of Farmer, Mackerel Fishing Derby, Old Fashioned Kitchen Party, Genealogy Fair, and a raft race.  I could have stayed the whole week!  On Family Day alone I could have had a delightful day of pony rides, pie eating, tug of war, visiting the petting zoo, shopping at the craft sale, then taking a spin on a wagon.  Every little town needs an "Old Home Days."

Images of New Brunswick