This year I realized there is a difference in the fair from the time I was coming with the band in the 60’s and today when our friends join us for a day at the fair. When did the changes happen is the question and why didn’t we notice them along the way?
In the 60’s when we were teenagers, we had to march up Main Street and on the fairgrounds in heavy wool uniforms before we could enjoy the fair. Then we spent the whole day or at least until 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon running around the fairgrounds. I don’t think we ever sat down when we were at the fair, just kept moving from ride to ride and eating all day long.
The 70’s when we were in our 20’s I didn’t get a chance to go to the fair very often but when I did go it was still a non-stop day of walking and eating. I usually went with a co-worker and sometimes we took off early or on a rare occasion we took a day off from work. It was one of the few times during the year that I’d actually take time off during the week.
First thing, when my girlfriend and I hit the fairgrounds, (around 9:30 a.m.) we bought pronto pups and were usually the first customers of the day since it was just breakfast time for most people. I put mustard on my pup and Liz used ketchup. I would rather eat it plain than put ketchup on it.
While we were devouring the pronto pup we were discussing what to eat next as we strolled through the grounds looking at the exhibits. After the pronto pup we usually needed the first coke of the day and before long settled on the next item of food. In one of the west buildings, there was a stand that made fudge. We always had one piece of fudge to nibble on while we finished the coke.
Back then in the Sunflower building, there was a company from Lyons that sold beef jerky. They are no longer in business, but it was the best I have ever eaten. It looked like a piece of very tender minute steak cut into strips and the flavor so good. It was very tender and was hard to put down. (I am not a jerky fan but I loved theirs.)
One year Liz and I bought a half pound of the jerky for our husbands and vowed to only eat one piece and take the rest home to them. I hate to say it but neither one of us got off the fairgrounds with a single stick of the jerky. When we finished one food and during the walk, to the next stand we would eat a piece of the jerky.
Lunch was always a hamburger at one of the local booths and of course a large order of greasy fries or a blooming onion. As soon as lunch was over and we were full of grease we’d take off again to see the sights and there wasn’t a single stand or exhibit that we did not see.
I had to have some cotton candy after lunch, my first batch of the day, but certainly not my last. (I usually took a bag home) Liz always had a funnel cake.
After more walking, we’d wander over to the highway patrol building. On the corner was a stand that sold fresh roasted peanuts. Liz always had to have a bag. She’d eat the peanuts, laying down a trail of shells as we walked around the fairground. We could have found the peanut stand from the shells on the ground even if our memory had failed us.
While ‘Liz was eating the peanuts I’d eat a New Years cookie which was my afternoon dessert since I had already had dessert with lunch. I love New Years cookies but they do not freeze well. They are best eaten while they are fresh and warm. Saltwater taffy, roasted corn, and caramel apple sundaes were also on the list every time we went to the fair together. It was a good thing we spent the day walking or we would have been in real trouble.
Today at the age of 70 the walking and eating has slowed down. My husband and I go with my BFF and her husband. The girls go one way and the men go another and we meet for lunch. I never have much to eat along the way before lunch, unlike when I was in my 20’s to 40’s. I will have the pronto pup for lunch and always buy some cotton candy to bring home.
My BFF has to have a funnel cake but I have never liked it, my husband and I will have some ice cream from the Ambucs stand for dessert. She and I were chuckling the other day about the 4 us sitting on the park benches eating our desserts. My husband and I with our ice cream and she and her husband have the funnel cake.
One year there was a breeze and we didn’t take that into account when we sat down. She was sitting on the end of the bench that the wind was coming from. The rest of us looked like we had been in a snowstorm after a few minutes; we were covered in powdered sugar.
Now we take the wind into account and check which way it is blowing and sit so she sits at the end of the bench so the powdered sugar blows away from us. Our eating is over after dessert on the park bench and we are all ready to leave the grounds by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. But I still buy a bag of cotton candy on the way out of the fairgrounds and have it to snack on for two to three weeks after the fair is gone.
So, is there a difference in the foods and we no longer like them? Or is it our age that is showing and we can’t walk or eat like we used to? I am not about to answer that and not sure I really want to know the answer to the question; what has changed with the fair then and now? To contact Sandy: [email protected]
