It is the abiding fear of grown-ups that children, focused on the best of today and tomorrow, lose the sweetest bits of yesterday.

How will kids brought up to nuke dinner cope when they discover that not all cookies come ready to slice from tubes of dough?

What of the thrill of mastering the art of stitching a straight line with a sewing machine?

Will a generation that can make any image jump somersaults on the computer screen know how to use glue and scissors to turn a shoebox, pine cones and construction paper into a diorama of a beaver’s habitat?

It is to these adults that the Puyallup Spring Fair’s Creative Kids contest offers annual reassurance.

This year, entries were close to 1,110 in eight categories: art, baking, creative writing, photography, textiles, birdhouses and feeders, robotics and, most thrilling of all, the Egg Drop Contest.

Though we’ll have to wait until 3 p.m. Sunday to see whose egg resists the Big Splat, we can take our reassurance in other categories when the fair opens at 3 p.m. Thursday. We can wander the Pavilion and see how well these kids have been preserving and updating old skills.

We can peek into dioramas and let the likes of Brooks Moeller, 8, of Eatonville, assure us of the future salability of glue and the enduring appeal of a beaver’s lair reproduced in a sneaker box.

We can marvel at the resemblance between the photo of Cody the dog and Cody the sculpture by Karly Dammel, 8, of Puyallup. Every dog should have a girl like Karly.

We can, when we covet one of Lily Jo Ayres’ cookies, thank the parent blessed with kitchen patience. Lily, 12, of Kent, turned oatmeal, coconut and chocolate into scrumptious rounds only after much practice. So precise, so perfect are these cookies, that her teacher surely insisted that every mess be cleaned, every ingredient be measured and every oven watched – excellent life lessons, all.

We can ask why both types of birdhouses, plain models intended as residences and fanciful edifices for display only, were judged so strictly.

“They want the birds to stay alive,” said Kathy Brooks, who coordinates the exhibit.

Make the entry hole too big, and large birds can reach right in and make a meal of baby sparrows. Put a perch outside that hole, and the marauder gets balcony seating, too. For young builders, it’s a sobering lesson in the value of measuring – and thinking – twice before they cut. We can respect the discipline of the exercise. We can also say wow to the fabulous sense of color and texture that Lakewood’s Samuel Dawson, a mere 6 years old, invested in the orange-roofed wonder with a facade covered in tiles, crushed glass and ceramic butterflies.

We can imagine the play date he might have with Lindsey Shaw, also 6, of Gig Harbor. Her multi-media portrait of Lady in the Stars shines with the same fearless exuberance. The heck with staying in the lines. Add more lipstick, and shimmer.

We can marvel at the thousand origami cranes that Isaiah Forward, 13, folded into 10 strands. We can wonder how he came upon the story of Sadako Sasaki, who died of radiation poisoning in her home city of Hiroshima, and why he was so touched by the 1,000 paper cranes she folded as a plea for peace.

We can thank the teachers who understand the value of a ribbon – white, red, blue, gold or, for the grand champion, an outsized rosette trailing purple and gold streamers.

These are the emblems of public recognition, and the memory of receiving them can last as long as the child.

These are the educators who, after their workday was done, stood in line to enter their students’ poems and essays on false friends, true families, snow days and strawberries.

Strawberries

Big red hearts fill mouths

Among saccharine flavors

Sugar every bite

By Emily Hensler, 11, Clover Creek Elementary School

We can, thanks to the likes of Emily, Lily, Samuel, Lindsey and Isaiah, appreciate the skills and sweetness these kids bring to their work. As Emily wrote, “Sugar in every bite.”

Where: Puyallup Fair & Events Center

When: Thursday 3-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

Cost: $8 general admission; $7 ages 6-18; free 5 and younger. Friday is military appreciation day, free with ID.

Parking: Free in fair lots. Whee!

Questions: Call (253) 841-5045 for the 24-hour hot line or (253) 845-1771 for a real person. Go to www.thefair. com.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677

kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com