FRYEBURG — Where else can you see the oldest and the newest?

Take a look inside the museum buildings at THE Fryeburg Fair and you’ll see 150-year-old farm implements, the first chain saws ever built, and sewing machines that are 100 years old and still running.

Take a walk around the fairgrounds and you’ll see vendors anxious to show you the latest in whatever they’re selling – telescoping flagpoles, generators, and cable television equipment.

Wind and rain on Wednesday and Thursday meant more inside traffic than outside, with one notable exception: the Energy Aisle. People who found their way to this area took advantage of the intermittent warmth provided by the latest in space heaters, fireplaces and wood stoves.

Inside the museum, twin sisters Christine Murphy and Kathren Albert enjoyed staying warm and dry as they entertained visitors with tales of living and farming long ago.

Murphy spends a week at the fair demonstrating how quilts were sewn on a big frame, while upstairs, Albert sews pieces of cloth together for wall hangings and quilts on her 100-year-old Singer sewing machine.

The old machine seems to jar a lot of memories among visitors, including one from a woman who remembered trying to sew something with no shoes on.

For those not familiar with a treadle, it looks like a rectangular iron grate, suspended underneath the machine, which the operator pushes up and down to make the machine run.

Her mother told her not to use it without shoes, which is, of course, exactly what she did. As her mother had feared, she got her toe stuck in one of the holes.

The funniest story Albert has heard came from a man in his 30s who said he used to love to stitch bologna on the machine, with no thread, making a line of little holes, so he could rip it more easily.

Faylene Rogers joins Albert on the second floor, which has dozens of displays, divided into sections, to show what life was like long ago.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve had to explain that,” Rogers said, pointing to what is called a knee-hole ladder. The ladder is built like a steep stairway, but on alternate steps, a half circle is cut out so the climber’s knee doesn’t hit. It’s used in places where there’s not enough room for a traditional staircase.

Albert said a woman saw the ladder a few years ago and exclaimed, “That’s the answer to the problem at my camp!” She said the woman came back the next year to tell her she found a carpenter to make her one, and it had worked perfectly.

A couple from Canton, staying in their camper on the fairgrounds, came by to take a look at Albert’s machine.

“What year was that built?” Steve Knox asked.

“1910,” Albert answered.

“Think of it,” Knox said. “A hundred years old. Just as good as it ever was.”

Asked if he was from Maine, he answered, “Some.”

“I was away in the service for 21 years,” he explained. He said he has come to the fair for the last 17 years. He stays the whole week, while his wife, Cheryl, stays for part of the time.

“I heard they set a record on opening day,” he said. “All three days have been wicked populated. Even today, there’s quite a few out there, mullin’ around. As soon as it starts to rain, though, they’ll run for their awnings or go through these buildings.”

Better weather is promised through Sunday, the last day of the fair.