Wednesday at the Washington County Fair was both Senior Citizens Day, with discount admission for our elders, and Dollar Day, when many of the food booths offer $1 bargains. While I’m still a few weeks away from getting my AARP card, I took full advantage of Dollar Day and the chance to reacquaint myself with one of Rhode Island’s finest annual events.

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---Gallery: More photos of the Washington County Fair

Reasonable people will differ, but here — because I can’t confine myself to just 10 — are my Top 11 Things to Love About This Year’s Washington County Fair.

11. Scents and sounds. From the faint air of sausage drifting over the parking lot, to the smells of barbecue and popcorn amid the food booths, to the animal smells near the barns, your nose offers a sometimes-pungent reminder that you’re in a special, fun place. And near the food booths is Bob and Sue Newman’s 1924 Wurlitzer military band organ, a player-piano-like device that pumps out hurdy-gurdy music reminiscent of an old-fashioned merry-go-round.

10. Indoor mini-golf. Right in the middle of the 4-H pavilion, amid the artworks, the pretty flower arrangements and the earnest discussions of agriculture, is a seven-hole miniature-golf course. Nicole McGovern and Kayla Adams, a pair of 12-year-olds from the Carolina section of Richmond, tell me that not only is the price $1 every day, but they will stamp your hand and you can play as often as you want. Sure, the course is a bit short, but how can you beat that deal?

9. Scarecrows. Or, more precisely, 38 6-inch-tall miniature scarecrows in the Arts and Crafts building, their arms and legs made of little bundles of straw, with faces and straw hats. Edith S., a modest woman from Pawtuxet Village who does not use her last name, made one of the first-place winners, an especially fine specimen with yarn hair and yellow flowers on its little straw hat. Very cool.

8. Permanent restrooms. They’re not luxurious, but they’re a cut above the porta-potties prevalent at other fairs and festivals.

7. Pickles. At the Fair General Store — along with the fair hats and shirts made by a grange member, the baked goods from Wakefield’s Highland Farm, and the jellies and relishes put up in jars especially for the fair by a company in Pennsylvania — are delicious, huge half-sour pickles that Paula Fish of the Richmond Grange, the store’s manager, reports are its top seller. They cost $1 all during the fair; “by the end, they’re buying them in buckets.”

Fish says the pickles come from a local restaurant she doesn’t want to name, and asks me to guess which one. I tell her that they taste just like the superb pickles at Gregg’s, the Rhode Island chain that has a South County outpost in North Kingstown.

Amazingly enough, that’s exactly what they are.

6. Bees. Stephen Ornberg of Ashaway Apiary in Richmond hasn’t only brought his honey, “creamed” honey and cut comb for sale. His booth also has a small observation beehive, with glass sides and a wooden frame, a beekeeper’s hat and veil perched on top. It’s a self-sustaining hive, and bees climb around the honeycomb inside as a pair of little girls search for the queen.

5. Fine-looking plants. In the agriculture building, a sign explains that judging is on the “Danish system,” so that farmers compete not against each other but against the judges’ ideas of marketability. That way, not only can well-formed beets, cherry tomatoes and jalapenos, cactus, begonias and gladioli win ribbons; so can an especially good bale of hay. Congratulations to Thomas Koczkoda, of Hope Valley, whose first-place bale of second-cut hay stands proudly at one of the building’s doors.

4. Shade. You can surely find the sun at the fair, but decades worth of shade trees are everywhere on the fairground, and especially prevalent in the pine-needle-strewn amphitheater where the big musical acts play. For those who, like me, are follically challenged, this is a blessing.

3. People-watching. Whether it’s teens in cowboy hats checking out the food stands, a baker’s dozen members of Wickford’s Belles of Beechwood, lovely senior ladies in purple shirt and red hats strolling the grounds, or young women from the 4-H dressed in white button-down shirts and black ties to present their cows in the show ring, the fair affords a fine chance to see South County style.

Of course, style can present problems, as the 4-H’ers — and their parents — know. Ask Gina DeFeo, of Exeter, sitting in the dairy barn and showing off the muck on the white shirt of her 15-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn.

“The worst part about white …” says Gina.

“…Is the cows not remembering the girls are wearing white,” finishes David Stukus, of Exeter, father of 20-year-old Cassy, sitting beside her.

2. Volunteers. Not only is the barbecued chicken at the South Kingstown Athletic Boosters Club booth delectable — cooked in a smoker right behind the booth, and finished with homemade barbecue sauce — but the people in the booth are friendly as all get-out. Parents, grandparents and student-athletes — among them three generations of the Clauson-Sebastian family — volunteer, just as at other booths and the parking lot and the offices, many taking their vacations to work on the fair and raise money for charity. And no one at the Boosters Club booth laughs when I accidentally splash barbecue sauce on my notebook.

And my Number One reason to love this year’s Washington County Fair:

1. Jonnycakes. As I stand in line at the Carolina Volunteer Fire Association booth, and later as I’m eating my perfectly browned jonnycakes, I’m startled by the number of people who ask what this traditional Rhode Island food is. Are they all out-of-staters?

Jonnycakes are cornmeal pancakes, of course, and the Volunteer Fire Association’s cooks make theirs with white cornmeal from Kenyon’s in Usquepaugh, frying them till they’re just slightly mushy inside, then serving them with syrup and the option of butter (not necessary, in my opinion). Obviously an educational experience for some — and, oh, so scrumptious.

The 41st annual Washington County Fair continues at the fairgrounds on Route 112, Richmond, opening at 9 a.m. today through Sunday. No coolers or pets are allowed.

Tonight’s musical lineup has Carolina Rain at 6 and 9:30 p.m.; Mel Tillis performs tomorrow at 1 and 9 p.m. and Jimmy Wayne Sunday at 12:30 and 5:30 p.m. Admission, which includes parking and entertainment, is $9, free for children 10 and under. Tickets to the Rockwell Amusements midway are $1.50 a ride, or $16 to ride all the rides, noon to 5 p.m., Thursday and Friday only.

Special events are planned each day. For a complete listing of events, check www.washingtoncountyfair-ri.com.

There is a telephone at the fairgrounds this week only. Call (401) 539-7042.

arosenbe@projo.com