I can now say with authority that I have been to a typical American small-town parade. Everyone who’s anyone in the town comes out to walk down the Main drag: the American Legion, Boy and Girl Scouts, the local area marching bands, baton twirlers, jugglers, VFDs, etc. Then, after all that, there is a little crafts fair where you can buy local-made stuff and greasy fair food. Since Albion is in Western New York, you can’t have a fair without someone selling Beef on Weck.

But this particular crafts fair had something I’d never heard of before. After the debut of the deep-fried Twinkies at last year’s NC State Fair, I thought that everything imaginable had already been deep-fried. I was wrong, for this little festival had (drumroll, please)…

Fried dill pickles. Specifically: Claussen dill pickle chips, deep fried, served with Ranch dressing.

Trust me, they were so good. As my friend Gordon from Scotland would say, “It contains two of the four British food groups: sugar, salt, beer and grease.”