The woman, who was reading a book called Man Eaters, looked almost safe compared with the man, whose feet are visible right on the cliff edge.

Meanwhile, the cautious, conservative, aging landscape painter sits with his sketchbook well back from the edge, trying to concentrate on issues of bright sunshine and deep blue shade, capturing the vastness without overpainting it, not thinking about the attractive young strangers nearby risking a plunge to their deaths ....

 The midway had a range of the typical games -- throw darts at a balloon and win a junky prize, that sort of thing. But a few I'd never seen before -- they weren't part of my memories from North American shows like the PNE in Vancouver. One was called "Smash the Dolly," which had a particularly modern sound to it.  And there were three or four booths of "Laughing Clowns," which Christine remembered from her childhood.

The clowns' heads turn from side to side. The idea is to stuff a ball into the mouth at the right time, when the mouth is at the right angle, so the ball lands in one of the lucky slots in the tray below. The lucky numbers, which win you a junky prize, are posted on the wall behind.

It looked like a real bore to me, but she swore it was very difficult to do successfully. Children were more easily entertained then, I suppose.

Another highlight of her remembered fairs were the Show Bags: for a few dollars (a few shillings then) you got a sample bag from your favorite candy company or whatever, usually containing a junky prize like a whistle you could use to annoy the neighbourhood dogs and adults.

And that's how we spent the first day of autumn.