The 106th Washington Parish Fair will come to a close Saturday night, and the Daily News hopes you got your fill of the free family fun. We honestly believe that our parish fair is the best.

City people can get a taste of rural America at the fair. There are farm animals of various sorts to walk amongst, and baby animals to pet and maybe even cuddle. And there is Mile Branch Settlement with buildings from historic times even before many cities were founded.

The Washington Parish Fair provides an opportunity for folks who haven’t seen each other in a while to run into one another. It can stir memories of past fairs, and it can inspire elders to look at the rides, the contests, and Old McDonald’s Farm with the fresh eyes of the children among us.

There are particular smells, tastes and sounds associated with the fair-the smell of cracklins and roasted peanuts cooking, the taste of the great slabs of cheese and Sassafras tea, and the sounds of barkers and the rides on the midway, and of one after another musical groups on the porches or in the church at Mile Branch.

The Daily News hopes you got enough to last until next October.