At “Summer on the Hudson,” the west side of Manhattan’s fifth annual county fair held Sunday afternoon, New York City kids and parents got a little touch of country living as they milked fake cows—diluted flour and water “does the trick,” explained a volunteer—and rode a six-cage Ferris wheel looking out at the Hudson off the end of the 72nd Street pier.
John Elio, a city employee who operates the popular spinning apple carnival ride on the weekends, was glad to see the Department of Parks and Recreation doing what they could to give local kids a taste of the great outdoors.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 fantastic years,” he said. “I love to see their excited faces as they hop aboard the apple. You should check out the petting zoo down under that overpass over there.”
The petting zoo was right beneath the Riverside Drive and 66th street overpass. Pony rides, free like everything else at the fair, a ten-by-ten-foot enclosure with a llama, two goats, a donkey, an emu, and a pony-drawn hay wagon were all surrounded by hoards of children, parents, and strollers.
Whether it was a traditional county fair or not, faces were smiling, children were jumping, baseball tossing, sack-racing, and hula-hooping, and clowns and stilt-people were sauntering about amid the crowds.
One excited young Manhattanite, seven-year-old Charlotte Birsh, was jumping from a swinging boat ride and taking off for the pony rides.
“I swear, I wasn’t scared at all,” she exclaimed. “That was so fun, you could see downtown from up there!”
Ashley Pandolfi can be reached at ashley.pandolfi@columbiaspectator.com
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