Fun for kids that won’t break the bank
The Enterprise — Elizabeth Floyd Mair
Matthew Hans of Altamont, 7, holds the trophy he won Tuesday in the matchbox-car race at the fair. of Altamont, 7, holds the trophy he won Tuesday in the matchbox-car race at the fair.
ALTAMONT — Several games of old-fashioned fun for kids at the fair are free, or close to it.
One example is the archery booth, which is open all day throughout the fair and charges one dollar for an archer to stand at the edge of a large tent and shoot six arrows toward targets inside. There are no prizes.
Another is the matchbox-car race held once a day, at 1 p.m., in the Cars: Past, Present and Future building. There, children — all five of them on Tuesday were boys — pick Matchbox cars and send them rushing down a four-foot-tall ramp and onto a long track. The day’s winner receives a foot-tall, shiny trophy topped with an antique automobile.
Matthew Hans of Altamont, 7, said the ramp was “kinda just like” one he and his friends made to race their Pinewood Derby cars at his birthday party, but a little taller.
Matthew didn’t win every race on Tuesday, but he won most of them, including the final playoff matches. His eyes went large went John Van Wormer, the superintendent of Altamont Fair Auto Museum, came over and handed him the day’s trophy. Matthew and his mother and his younger brother stood outside the building in the sunlight, talking on a cell phone and showing the trophy; they said they were FaceTime-ing the boys’ father to let him know.
Van Wormer said that they always try to do something for the kids at the auto museum. “We’ve been doing this for the last couple years, and it’s been going over real big, so we don’t change it,” he said.
Darren Putnam of Albany, 10, marched up to the archery booth, located near the far end of 1st Avenue, six dollars ready in his hand, and gave them to the man in charge. He received 36 arrows, pushed them into a cup holder, and started firing.
Taking aim: Darren Putnam of Albany fell in love with archery at the Altamont Fair years ago, says his mother, who has been bringing him every year since, primarily to try his hand at archery again.
His mother, Claudia Lingertat, said that Darren fell in love with archery here at the fair. The first time he ever shot an arrow was when he was 5, at the fair.
Darren took junior archery at the Heldeberg Workshop this year, but was disappointed that they use smaller arrows in the junior class, and is looking forward next year to regular archery, where the arrows are full-size.
“We come here every year for him to do it,” Claudia Lingertat said as her son continued shooting.