_This story is part of our ongoing series **From the Ground Up**, a collaboration between Narratively and ScottsMiracle-Gro exploring the lives, memories, and connections rooted in the yards, fields, and green spaces we call home._ Midway through October, the trucks and the trailers begin to pull into Masconomo Park early in the week. Day by day the field transforms. Watchful little eyes track the unfolding of the Ferris wheel, the Scrambler, the carousel, the cotton candy stand.
Harvest Fest has come to town. We parents might drag our feet a bit at this weekend invasion; we might think of the fall chores left unattended at home; we might grumble at the cash-only treats and the grimy games and the quickly spent ticket sheets. After all, it’s not summer anymore.
The school year is buzzing and the holidays are coming and everything’s in full gear. There’s a windy chill in the air. Who’s really looking for noisy thrills on this open weekend before the lead-up to Halloween?
But of course we show up anyway: we always knew we would, that there wasn’t any real choice to make. And because we do, we get to feast once again on the harvest fruits of our harborside community, a small town called Manchester-by-the-Sea on the North Shore of Massachusetts. Our village park stands at the edge of the town center, bordered by water on three sides and anchored by a baseball diamond and field, a playground, and a white gazebo overlooking the harbor.
During Harvest Fest, sputtering trucks clutter the field’s perimeter and obscure the usual view of the town docks and the marshy inlet where egrets perch at low tide. But to our kids, today the view from the park has never been better: rides, concessions, hay bales and friends in all directions. The Harvest Fest’s appeal lies in its under-attended, off-season charm.
If the fair came during the high days of summer, when streams of visitors trek past the park from the train station to the beach and back, the lines would be sweaty and the faces unknown. But it’s just us locals who have been pulled in for this one, and accordingly, the fair remains our own children’s romping ground. The rides are running at a quarter capacity; there are no lines for even the most popular attractions.
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