NORWICH – Most weren’t too anxious to ride the rides, but the senior citizens attending the Chenango County Fair for free Thursday said they were having a barrel of fun anyway.

Intermittent rain showers couldn’t keep them at home. A walk down memory lane in Exhibition Hall complete with a slice of blackberry pie or barbecued beef and potato salad for lunch were just what the doctor ordered for the older set yesterday.

Eleanor Curley of Norwich proudly pointed to her great-granddaughter’s first place winning pencil drawing of a rabbit. The art was exhibited as part of the county fair’s student art show.

“That’s why I came out,” she said.

With friend Margaret McCarthy in tow, the duo visited the various exhibits, took time out to rest at a picnic table and generally laughed a lot.

They would only jokingly admit to being “definitely over 50.”

Kate and David McNitt of Sherburne said they hadn’t been to the county fair in many, many years. During a stroll nearby the quilter’s display, David, who will celebrate his 85th birthday next week, fondly recalled when he and his sons took the championship in the tractor pull for a bucketload of years back in the 1970s.

“We had a Massey Harris, a Massey Ferguson and a 275 Massey. We entered them all and took top prize every year,” said David.