Mr. Elwood Heaps (Woody)
Bloomsburg Fair Food Concession
Over 40 years working at the Bloomsburg Fair
Interview July 3, 2008.
How long have you been working at the Fair
This is going to be our family’s 61st year, and I’m the third generation. The family started the stand in 1947. My grandparents started it, and then my father took it over, Wayne Heaps. He passed away at age 60, with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Then, I took over from there, which was the third generation, and hopefully, we’ll have a fourth generation. Our kids are interested in it now.
This work is just the secondary income for our household. I might not even call it secondary. It is just fun. A lot of it is the people you get to see every year. There are a lot of people who come from different areas, and that’s the only time I see them. It used to be open twenty-four hours. We used to run twenty fours hours a day. That was to feed all of the workers on the fairgrounds. There were two of us who did this – us and Edwards. Then, we stopped the twenty-four-hours-a-day shift, and opened at five in the morning. The change was due to a lot of trouble late at night. Some people got real rowdy. So, it was a decision that the Fair Board made. I’m glad they did because it was just too much. It’s not like it used to be. I mean, before you used to have the farmers, the cattle people, the horse people, all that would come in. Now, they’re into all this other stuff, and it just wasn’t worth it.
We did twenty-four hours as a service. They [the Fair] asked my grandparents, back when they originally started, if they would be interested in staying open all night for the “horsemen” and the cattle people, and the people that were staying on the fairground, so that’s where it started.
Now we run a full breakfast menu, and we run our soups and sandwiches all day. Our platters: meatloaf, turkey, ham, fish. It’s a large menu. I’ve added a lot to the menu, too. Since I’ve taken over, I’ve changed a lot. It was time to move with the crowd, so I added chicken wings and fish and chicken platters, Shrimp platters. As a matter of fact, I think it has helped me out quite a bit. I sell a lot of chicken wings.
We open a week earlier than everyone. We open up early to feed the people setting up. The toughest thing is dishes, and figuring out prices. The way it’s going, it’s like a full restaurant menu. We have six waitresses that run the front. I have six sets of tables. We have around twenty-eight employees. It’s quite the set-up. We move everything in and everything out. The only thing that we have put up is the tent. A company does the tent, but we do everything else.
I know I have had to increase my prices, but a lot of the compliments I get are about how low my prices are. Sometimes I wonder if I’m not shorting myself. It’s hard to judge because a lot of the other stands don’t have waitresses, where I have to pay for that, and I should be figuring for that. But I can’t because people walking around the fairgrounds will say, “Joe Blow has got this steak that’s different from yours.”
My mother is the reason we have a sit down place. In a Press Enterprise article our stand was labeled, “The one spot of light, after midnight.” It used to be pretty interesting there at night. You’d never know what you’d see. Do you remember when the wrench beating happened? That was it. That was when they closed the overnight hours. They closed Mama Edward’s down form that. Those poor people, they had just bought their stand, and that ordeal went down. The next night we were still open, I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid for the people who worked for me. Then they came in and said you have to close down at night. I said, “That’s alright. I was more or less thinking of doing that anyway.” It just wasn’t worth it. Now, I close at midnight, and I’m opening at five, so I’m not losing a lot. I mean, we used to get a lot of the bar people. At two o’clock, the place would be filled and we seat seventy -two. The garbage people would come in too, to eat at night, but those times are gone. I have no complaints about it.
Bob Hope came in once to eat, and so did Gretchen Wilson. Nobody knew who she was. There she sat eating, and nobody knew her. Bill Engvall, he came too. He was outside at this big bench trailer, right across from our shack, and he said, “Boy, if this wouldn't be a red-neck thing I don’t know what would be.” And Billy Ray Cyrus, he ended up out back where there is a little triangle piece of grass behind our stand. He started doing back-flips out there. He may have been drinking, I’m not sure. There were quite a few of these people that came to our stand. There for a while, we were sending a bunch of wings to different bands. There's been quite a few of them. The Oakridge Boys, they came in once. It's funny because they came in and sat down to eat, and we didn't even know who they were.
The first time I spent the night in the fairgrounds was 1975. That was also the year of the flood, and we left early. That night, I convinced my dad to let me stay for the night. I was about ten years old. We didn’t end up staying the whole night, though, because of the flood. A guard came in and said, “You better call your dad and tell him to get over here. The water already broke over the road down there.” And, I called my dad and he said, “You guys are nuts. I just checked it out.” I said, “I'm telling you what they said.” So, he came over, and got on the phone and started calling everybody. We got everything loaded, and we got all our stuff off the fairground. We saw pigs floating, and oranges, and toys. And people even got electrocuted that year. A lot of people were walking around on water trying to get their stuff, and the electricity was laying on the ground. It was a mess.
I was stuck with that night shift for a long time. Long after I graduated. The shift started around nine o'clock and went until seven, eight, or nine in the morning.
Do you have any other stories or memories?
My grandmother and grandfather, they use to own a store in Lime Ridge. A small grocery store. My grandfather was also a cop in Lime Ridge. He worked up at the AC&F, too, so he was pretty busy. He raised turkeys for the fair. He raised them in his backyard. They use to kill them and carve them up at my grandparents' house. Then, they would take them down to the fair every day. At one time, we were doing almost a ton of turkey for the fair. As the years went on, turkey was less a part of the business.
I was only five when my grandfather passed away from cancer. Then my dad ran the stand for my Gram. We had a guy too, Bud, who cooked for us for forty-one years. He was still with me after my dad passed away. Not much has really changed. We do have a lot of people ask us to do other fairs, but we just do Bloomsburg. We have had what I call “Carnies” [the people that travel with the Fairs]. They love our food and they say, “No matter where we go, we don't have anything like this.” I couldn't imagine doing what we do and traveling to other fairs. I would enjoy doing it, but with kids...nah! It's no place for kids. Locally, it’s nice. We come home every night.
I also remember, there were a lot of different shows. You know, the Shortest Man, and all that kind of stuff. There were a lot of neat little things you could go see and never forget about. And it’s like I said, the fair is trying to do everything they can, and times have changed. For example, now the lions they have, that’s been nice. I think they need more stuff like that, to get people to come. We try to take one day, or a night, and run out real quick and see some things
As for our place, there really aren’t many sit down places like ours left. There was a stand that came up next door to us. And I said, “If that piece of property comes up, I’d really like to have it.” It’s tough to add on. The guy that was right next to me said he’d move down and take another spot and give me his spot. This gave me another fifteen feet, and it made us fifty-five feet long. The fair asked me, “Well, what do you want to do with it?” And I said, “ I want to make more seating.” So, that’s what we did. I have seen a lot of faces change. A lot of the people, the older people, that had stands are gone.
Some other things we do: I run all the meals for the Fire Company in Catawissa. I run the Carnival. It is August 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, and I take care of all that and get that all set up. It’s tough. It’s tough to get people. It’s like the Chief said, “Who’s helping you with it?” “Me, myself, and I,” I said. I just do that for the Fire Company. I get all their entertainment. I have all the people come in, and try to make sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be. That’s my donation to the town. We’ve only done it for four years. Me and another guy started it, and I’ll tell you what made me feel good. This band, Hybrid Ice, they’re coming to play and my phone rang. It’s this guy from Hybrid Ice, and I said, “How did you get my name anyhow?” and he said, “I’ll tell you what happened. We were at some other carnivals and they said, ‘you want to go to a really nice carnival, go to the one in Catawissa. Try to get in there.’” I said, “Good, that’s what I want to hear.” He said, “Yeah, your set-up is supposed to be really nice.” And I said, “Thanks, that means a lot.”
I remember, we started out in a Pole-Tent, which my dad picked up in New York. We rented it and put it up. This type of tent has two big poles that go up the middle, like a circus tent. It is a real big tent with poles in the middle. My dad used to have to get all his buddies just to get the tent up. And they’d put that tent up, and go down and pound in all the stakes, then afterward they would come down and pick the tent up every year at the end of the Fair. That was back when it was tough. Everything was just heavy. Now we’ve got a tent company that comes in and puts it up. We’ve long done away with the pole tent.
I have three children and we put them all to work at the fair. We start the weekend after the Labor Day holiday. Things change quickly. That last month it is a month of hard work for us and it’s a whole family deal. My wife bakes cakes; she does her own pies and stuff.
My uncle said to me once, “Boy, if you’re grandmother and grandfather could be around now to see all the changes you’ve made!” I think they would be proud. It’s like I said, I hope to keep it going for another sixty years.
With the fair you either love it or you hate it. It’s a lot of hours.
How long have you been working at the Fair
This is going to be our family’s 61st year, and I’m the third generation. The family started the stand in 1947. My grandparents started it, and then my father took it over, Wayne Heaps. He passed away at age 60, with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Then, I took over from there, which was the third generation, and hopefully, we’ll have a fourth generation. Our kids are interested in it now.
This work is just the secondary income for our household. I might not even call it secondary. It is just fun. A lot of it is the people you get to see every year. There are a lot of people who come from different areas, and that’s the only time I see them. It used to be open twenty-four hours. We used to run twenty fours hours a day. That was to feed all of the workers on the fairgrounds. There were two of us who did this – us and Edwards. Then, we stopped the twenty-four-hours-a-day shift, and opened at five in the morning. The change was due to a lot of trouble late at night. Some people got real rowdy. So, it was a decision that the Fair Board made. I’m glad they did because it was just too much. It’s not like it used to be. I mean, before you used to have the farmers, the cattle people, the horse people, all that would come in. Now, they’re into all this other stuff, and it just wasn’t worth it.
We did twenty-four hours as a service. They [the Fair] asked my grandparents, back when they originally started, if they would be interested in staying open all night for the “horsemen” and the cattle people, and the people that were staying on the fairground, so that’s where it started.
Now we run a full breakfast menu, and we run our soups and sandwiches all day. Our platters: meatloaf, turkey, ham, fish. It’s a large menu. I’ve added a lot to the menu, too. Since I’ve taken over, I’ve changed a lot. It was time to move with the crowd, so I added chicken wings and fish and chicken platters, Shrimp platters. As a matter of fact, I think it has helped me out quite a bit. I sell a lot of chicken wings.
We open a week earlier than everyone. We open up early to feed the people setting up. The toughest thing is dishes, and figuring out prices. The way it’s going, it’s like a full restaurant menu. We have six waitresses that run the front. I have six sets of tables. We have around twenty-eight employees. It’s quite the set-up. We move everything in and everything out. The only thing that we have put up is the tent. A company does the tent, but we do everything else.
I know I have had to increase my prices, but a lot of the compliments I get are about how low my prices are. Sometimes I wonder if I’m not shorting myself. It’s hard to judge because a lot of the other stands don’t have waitresses, where I have to pay for that, and I should be figuring for that. But I can’t because people walking around the fairgrounds will say, “Joe Blow has got this steak that’s different from yours.”
My mother is the reason we have a sit down place. In a Press Enterprise article our stand was labeled, “The one spot of light, after midnight.” It used to be pretty interesting there at night. You’d never know what you’d see. Do you remember when the wrench beating happened? That was it. That was when they closed the overnight hours. They closed Mama Edward’s down form that. Those poor people, they had just bought their stand, and that ordeal went down. The next night we were still open, I couldn’t sleep because I was afraid for the people who worked for me. Then they came in and said you have to close down at night. I said, “That’s alright. I was more or less thinking of doing that anyway.” It just wasn’t worth it. Now, I close at midnight, and I’m opening at five, so I’m not losing a lot. I mean, we used to get a lot of the bar people. At two o’clock, the place would be filled and we seat seventy -two. The garbage people would come in too, to eat at night, but those times are gone. I have no complaints about it.
Bob Hope came in once to eat, and so did Gretchen Wilson. Nobody knew who she was. There she sat eating, and nobody knew her. Bill Engvall, he came too. He was outside at this big bench trailer, right across from our shack, and he said, “Boy, if this wouldn't be a red-neck thing I don’t know what would be.” And Billy Ray Cyrus, he ended up out back where there is a little triangle piece of grass behind our stand. He started doing back-flips out there. He may have been drinking, I’m not sure. There were quite a few of these people that came to our stand. There for a while, we were sending a bunch of wings to different bands. There's been quite a few of them. The Oakridge Boys, they came in once. It's funny because they came in and sat down to eat, and we didn't even know who they were.
The first time I spent the night in the fairgrounds was 1975. That was also the year of the flood, and we left early. That night, I convinced my dad to let me stay for the night. I was about ten years old. We didn’t end up staying the whole night, though, because of the flood. A guard came in and said, “You better call your dad and tell him to get over here. The water already broke over the road down there.” And, I called my dad and he said, “You guys are nuts. I just checked it out.” I said, “I'm telling you what they said.” So, he came over, and got on the phone and started calling everybody. We got everything loaded, and we got all our stuff off the fairground. We saw pigs floating, and oranges, and toys. And people even got electrocuted that year. A lot of people were walking around on water trying to get their stuff, and the electricity was laying on the ground. It was a mess.
I was stuck with that night shift for a long time. Long after I graduated. The shift started around nine o'clock and went until seven, eight, or nine in the morning.
Do you have any other stories or memories?
My grandmother and grandfather, they use to own a store in Lime Ridge. A small grocery store. My grandfather was also a cop in Lime Ridge. He worked up at the AC&F, too, so he was pretty busy. He raised turkeys for the fair. He raised them in his backyard. They use to kill them and carve them up at my grandparents' house. Then, they would take them down to the fair every day. At one time, we were doing almost a ton of turkey for the fair. As the years went on, turkey was less a part of the business.
I was only five when my grandfather passed away from cancer. Then my dad ran the stand for my Gram. We had a guy too, Bud, who cooked for us for forty-one years. He was still with me after my dad passed away. Not much has really changed. We do have a lot of people ask us to do other fairs, but we just do Bloomsburg. We have had what I call “Carnies” [the people that travel with the Fairs]. They love our food and they say, “No matter where we go, we don't have anything like this.” I couldn't imagine doing what we do and traveling to other fairs. I would enjoy doing it, but with kids...nah! It's no place for kids. Locally, it’s nice. We come home every night.
I also remember, there were a lot of different shows. You know, the Shortest Man, and all that kind of stuff. There were a lot of neat little things you could go see and never forget about. And it’s like I said, the fair is trying to do everything they can, and times have changed. For example, now the lions they have, that’s been nice. I think they need more stuff like that, to get people to come. We try to take one day, or a night, and run out real quick and see some things
As for our place, there really aren’t many sit down places like ours left. There was a stand that came up next door to us. And I said, “If that piece of property comes up, I’d really like to have it.” It’s tough to add on. The guy that was right next to me said he’d move down and take another spot and give me his spot. This gave me another fifteen feet, and it made us fifty-five feet long. The fair asked me, “Well, what do you want to do with it?” And I said, “ I want to make more seating.” So, that’s what we did. I have seen a lot of faces change. A lot of the people, the older people, that had stands are gone.
Some other things we do: I run all the meals for the Fire Company in Catawissa. I run the Carnival. It is August 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, and I take care of all that and get that all set up. It’s tough. It’s tough to get people. It’s like the Chief said, “Who’s helping you with it?” “Me, myself, and I,” I said. I just do that for the Fire Company. I get all their entertainment. I have all the people come in, and try to make sure everyone is where they’re supposed to be. That’s my donation to the town. We’ve only done it for four years. Me and another guy started it, and I’ll tell you what made me feel good. This band, Hybrid Ice, they’re coming to play and my phone rang. It’s this guy from Hybrid Ice, and I said, “How did you get my name anyhow?” and he said, “I’ll tell you what happened. We were at some other carnivals and they said, ‘you want to go to a really nice carnival, go to the one in Catawissa. Try to get in there.’” I said, “Good, that’s what I want to hear.” He said, “Yeah, your set-up is supposed to be really nice.” And I said, “Thanks, that means a lot.”
I remember, we started out in a Pole-Tent, which my dad picked up in New York. We rented it and put it up. This type of tent has two big poles that go up the middle, like a circus tent. It is a real big tent with poles in the middle. My dad used to have to get all his buddies just to get the tent up. And they’d put that tent up, and go down and pound in all the stakes, then afterward they would come down and pick the tent up every year at the end of the Fair. That was back when it was tough. Everything was just heavy. Now we’ve got a tent company that comes in and puts it up. We’ve long done away with the pole tent.
I have three children and we put them all to work at the fair. We start the weekend after the Labor Day holiday. Things change quickly. That last month it is a month of hard work for us and it’s a whole family deal. My wife bakes cakes; she does her own pies and stuff.
My uncle said to me once, “Boy, if you’re grandmother and grandfather could be around now to see all the changes you’ve made!” I think they would be proud. It’s like I said, I hope to keep it going for another sixty years.
With the fair you either love it or you hate it. It’s a lot of hours.
Mr. Fred Trump, Bloomsburg Fair President
How long have you been working at the Fair?
Well, a couple of things that you might be interested in: I was the longest serving president of the Fair Association. I served twenty-five years as president and ten years as secretary, so I’ve been around for a long time. I was the secretary from 1974 until 1984 and then I became president and served until January of 2008. And then I decided it was time to leave. Actually, as far as the fair is concerned, it has been part of my life ever since I was born. One of the stories that I’ve told before is that the first time I went to the fair was before I was born. I believe we lived on 6th Street in a house that has since been torn down. I was born in October of that year. So that’s how long I have been going to the Bloomsburg Fair. Then as a kid, the Fair was my play-ground. It was my way to school, because the school at that time was on West 3rd Street. And, so we walked over a mile to school, through the fairgrounds, and I learned to play baseball at the fairground. I learned how to ride a bike and even skinned my knees at the fairground. The Kiwanis had a playground there in the summer, and I was a marble champion during that time. I also played badminton in the fairgrounds as a kid. So, there were many things that I learned at the fair throughout my life. So, my family had a long-standing association at the fair. And then, as a high school student, I became assistant secretary of the Fair Association at the annual meetings that were held at Bloomsburg high school. Not many people came to the meetings back then. Later, when I was in college I would do the annual minutes. I was their recording secretary from 1968 to 1974. All in all a long association.
Even my kids have been part of the fair as they grew up, since we lived on West 3rd Street. My kids learned to ride their bikes and their cars in the fairgrounds. I even learned to drive there. I remember, at the age of sixteen I was chased off the fairgrounds because I was driving in a parking lot, and I was not supposed to be, but that’s where I learned to drive my car.
I met a lot of people along the way, so there have been many interesting stories about some of the people that I’ve known, whether it be Bob Hope, or whether it be Dr. Hook. I mean, there are just a lot of stories … Englebert Humperdink, the Guess Who,
Styx.
What are some of the memories that really stand out for you?
I have all good memories except maybe of the floods. One thing I remember was how involved the churches were in the past. Fifty years ago the Millennium building was all church stands. Now they have been torn down. You could also see a lot in the granges. I mean, the institutions which were part of the fair, and brought in money for churches and granges, they’ve gone by the boards because there are no volunteers anymore. In today’s world economy the husband and wife work, which wasn’t true fifty years ago. So, a lot of institutions are gone. I know that in some of the churches they consolidated and in others they have no volunteers whatsoever That’s what used to run the stands, the volunteers. So there has been change, now people are paid and they work there.
Volunteerism in America is on the downslide. But, the younger people now are beginning to care about their roots and they want to go back to them. I noticed the change in the attitudes in some of the younger people who want that change, they are saying, ‘wait a minute, what are we missing?’ I think that’s true, I think that as far as younger people are concerned, instead of spending all of their time on the Internet they need to get out and do something in the real world.
Something else that I can remember when I was eight years old was that Ferris Wheels were a big thing for me. I remember, I bought a pea-shooter at the Fair and while riding the Ferris Wheel I got stuck at the top. When I was up there I got caught popping something with the peashooter. A man said, “Don’t you know that you could hit somebody’s eye out?” I hadn’t thought about that, but I said, “I’m really sorry.”
Another memory was of the animals. In 1975, I got to lead a camel out of the flooded fairgrounds. I was so pleased because the camel was so cooperative until we got to dry land. I decided to reach over and pet the camel and he took one look at me and spit in my eye. The spit was a big dollop of hair and mucus, and I shall never forget that feeling. My camel and I were standing next to an elephant and I felt like I was Noah. In the end we took the animals all the way to Denny’s parking lot. We walked them to Main Street and they were driven from there. Recently, we haven’t had these types of animals at the Fair. We haven’t had the petting Zoo’s there for a while. It has been ten years since we had a big petting zoo. We don’t have it because there are a lot of animal regulations about bringing them near food, etcetera.
Lately, our granges have gone down a great deal. Granges were farm organizations, which would bring the grain and the vegetables and would make canned vegetables, and put out displays of the harvest. At one time we had as many as twenty-three. I think it is down to eight or nine now. Granges were active in promoting the interest of agriculture and, of course, the true name of the Bloomsburg Fair is the Columbia County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical society, and it started in 1854 or 1855. Actually it began in 1854 and then it was recognized in 1855 as an association. But it wasn’t chartered until 1888. There were a lot of interesting things that happened. When I first came on the board as secretary, the fairground encompassed 110 acres; today it has 248 acres. It is the biggest rural fair in Pennsylvania. In terms of acreage I think that there are probably some bigger fairs, but they are not as large by attendance. Bloomsburg Fair, Allentown Fair, York Fair are the three biggest fairs in Pennsylvania; followed by Clearfield and Meadville out in the Western part of the state. We have some large fairs in Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg is one of the twenty-fifth largest fairs in the United States. Sometimes we are twenty-five and York is twenty-four and sometimes we are twenty-four and York is twenty-five.
Another thing that is gone today is the Hoochie-Coochie [burlesque] show. People say, “Well why don’t you have Hoochie-Coochie shows anymore?” It seems like today you see more on television than you used to see at the Bloomsburg Fair shows. I have a story about these shows: when I was seventeen a rather buxom young lady came out before the show and called me up on stage, gave me a dollar to give her and she lost that dollar, and said that I could go into the show, so I went to the show, and it was very interesting.
The next day I went to church, and I remember coming out of the church and the pastor asked me: “How did you like that show?” I think he was in the crowd outside the show when I went in. He never told me that, and I never really asked him, but I had a sneaky suspicion he saw me up on the stage. There were many other stories, many.
Today the Fair is mostly a family thing. And I hope it stays that way. Now we have three stages with a lot of good family entertainment. We have tigers, lions, bears and you name it; and a lot of young people haven’t seen some of these animals, exotic animals. And a lot of people, from more urbanized areas are coming and they haven’t seen cows, or chickens, or animals being born. It is a new experience for them. We have something for everybody. I also think that the focus, at this point in time, is the continuation of family entertainment. We have a policy of no alcohol on the fairground, and a lot of fairs make a lot of money with alcohol. I would hope the fair continues this policy of no alcohol, because as long as we are a traditional family fair we will continue to grow. If that is lost it would be sad. The essence of the fair and the essence of the Bloom spirit would be lost. We also don’t have a lot of fights because of the no alcohol policy. Once in a while there’s one, but we try to maintain the image of being a family fair.
Other fairs have gone through having a beer tent, and so forth, I think that is a terrible mistake.
The primary focus is also on agricultural as it always has been from the beginning. If you walk into the buildings, you’ll see a lot of agriculture. And our fair still maintains the cattle, the sheep, the goats, the pigs, they are all here and I think that is one of our strong points because we still remain agricultural. Fairs always have a carnival aspect, or most fairs do, but that is not the major emphasis for ours. The major emphasis has been agriculture and good wholesome entertainment. And I think that, again, is the future. We have seven amphitheatres which could change the fair, and change its composition because fairs cannot stage the big shows. We have to have something new and something different, and by maintaining the agricultural flavor it brings something different. I think that you will see more and more free entertainment and less and less big-name, paid entertainment at the fair in the future. The grandstand itself is still in place. The stage has been torn down and these will the first years for that new stage, so it will be interesting. The new grandstand is a temporary stage, and will be here for at least three years and then the board will decide what they want to do, continue with the temporary stage or build a permanent stage.
There are so many memories, I could sit here all day and tell you.
One of the things that I’ve noticed is that older people still smile. Seems like young people have forgotten how to smile. Have you noticed that? Sometimes, they don’t know how to relate. I think that, if anything, technology has almost made them, I don’t want to say, introverts, but not social. There’s a gap between younger people and older people. When I was growing up, it was “Mrs. Krum, Mr. Krum” you know, and I knew my parents knew who I played with, they knew who my friends were. If you ask a kid today, they’re very reluctant to tell you the last name of a friend. And sometimes they just don’t know. I think it is also that the little child starting at the age of three is told, “Now don’t you talk to strangers” and that’s unfortunate because it makes the child afraid of everybody.
Did you ever have any vandalism at the fair?
Yes, but that has been within the last fifteen years. I mean if a boy or a girl broke a glass, their parents came over and said ‘my son or my daughter broke a window’, that doesn’t happen anymore, now if something is broken you have to call the police. We’ve had that, there have been several instances of vandalism. A lot of it has been graffiti, terrible graffiti, that they had to paint an entire building to cover. Now we have security cameras, and that has taken care of some of it. The cameras have been very helpful, but people report it, especially the neighbors of the fair We have received calls, “Hey there is a kid down here,” so we still have some internal neighborhood securities.
What do you think it is that makes some people love the fair and get really involved?
Well, I think it’s part of the community spirit, I really believe that. It is a spirit that you inherit and you either love it or you hate it. There are a lot of people who are born in the west end of Bloomsburg, and this fair is a very important part of their lives. But the community spirit can engulf more than just Railroad Street and West Bloomsburg. I think it embodies the whole of Columbia and Montour Counties. I think it is that spirit that brings people back again, and again, and again. I think that is why it is growing. I think that is it, as a way to pick up a little extra money. I know during my school years, I picked up money because I worked at a fair stand, and I worked as a chicken collector. In high school I remember I was stuck at a gate in the rain for a whole week, but I made sixty bucks and I thought that was great.
Well, a couple of things that you might be interested in: I was the longest serving president of the Fair Association. I served twenty-five years as president and ten years as secretary, so I’ve been around for a long time. I was the secretary from 1974 until 1984 and then I became president and served until January of 2008. And then I decided it was time to leave. Actually, as far as the fair is concerned, it has been part of my life ever since I was born. One of the stories that I’ve told before is that the first time I went to the fair was before I was born. I believe we lived on 6th Street in a house that has since been torn down. I was born in October of that year. So that’s how long I have been going to the Bloomsburg Fair. Then as a kid, the Fair was my play-ground. It was my way to school, because the school at that time was on West 3rd Street. And, so we walked over a mile to school, through the fairgrounds, and I learned to play baseball at the fairground. I learned how to ride a bike and even skinned my knees at the fairground. The Kiwanis had a playground there in the summer, and I was a marble champion during that time. I also played badminton in the fairgrounds as a kid. So, there were many things that I learned at the fair throughout my life. So, my family had a long-standing association at the fair. And then, as a high school student, I became assistant secretary of the Fair Association at the annual meetings that were held at Bloomsburg high school. Not many people came to the meetings back then. Later, when I was in college I would do the annual minutes. I was their recording secretary from 1968 to 1974. All in all a long association.
Even my kids have been part of the fair as they grew up, since we lived on West 3rd Street. My kids learned to ride their bikes and their cars in the fairgrounds. I even learned to drive there. I remember, at the age of sixteen I was chased off the fairgrounds because I was driving in a parking lot, and I was not supposed to be, but that’s where I learned to drive my car.
I met a lot of people along the way, so there have been many interesting stories about some of the people that I’ve known, whether it be Bob Hope, or whether it be Dr. Hook. I mean, there are just a lot of stories … Englebert Humperdink, the Guess Who,
Styx.
What are some of the memories that really stand out for you?
I have all good memories except maybe of the floods. One thing I remember was how involved the churches were in the past. Fifty years ago the Millennium building was all church stands. Now they have been torn down. You could also see a lot in the granges. I mean, the institutions which were part of the fair, and brought in money for churches and granges, they’ve gone by the boards because there are no volunteers anymore. In today’s world economy the husband and wife work, which wasn’t true fifty years ago. So, a lot of institutions are gone. I know that in some of the churches they consolidated and in others they have no volunteers whatsoever That’s what used to run the stands, the volunteers. So there has been change, now people are paid and they work there.
Volunteerism in America is on the downslide. But, the younger people now are beginning to care about their roots and they want to go back to them. I noticed the change in the attitudes in some of the younger people who want that change, they are saying, ‘wait a minute, what are we missing?’ I think that’s true, I think that as far as younger people are concerned, instead of spending all of their time on the Internet they need to get out and do something in the real world.
Something else that I can remember when I was eight years old was that Ferris Wheels were a big thing for me. I remember, I bought a pea-shooter at the Fair and while riding the Ferris Wheel I got stuck at the top. When I was up there I got caught popping something with the peashooter. A man said, “Don’t you know that you could hit somebody’s eye out?” I hadn’t thought about that, but I said, “I’m really sorry.”
Another memory was of the animals. In 1975, I got to lead a camel out of the flooded fairgrounds. I was so pleased because the camel was so cooperative until we got to dry land. I decided to reach over and pet the camel and he took one look at me and spit in my eye. The spit was a big dollop of hair and mucus, and I shall never forget that feeling. My camel and I were standing next to an elephant and I felt like I was Noah. In the end we took the animals all the way to Denny’s parking lot. We walked them to Main Street and they were driven from there. Recently, we haven’t had these types of animals at the Fair. We haven’t had the petting Zoo’s there for a while. It has been ten years since we had a big petting zoo. We don’t have it because there are a lot of animal regulations about bringing them near food, etcetera.
Lately, our granges have gone down a great deal. Granges were farm organizations, which would bring the grain and the vegetables and would make canned vegetables, and put out displays of the harvest. At one time we had as many as twenty-three. I think it is down to eight or nine now. Granges were active in promoting the interest of agriculture and, of course, the true name of the Bloomsburg Fair is the Columbia County Agricultural, Horticultural and Mechanical society, and it started in 1854 or 1855. Actually it began in 1854 and then it was recognized in 1855 as an association. But it wasn’t chartered until 1888. There were a lot of interesting things that happened. When I first came on the board as secretary, the fairground encompassed 110 acres; today it has 248 acres. It is the biggest rural fair in Pennsylvania. In terms of acreage I think that there are probably some bigger fairs, but they are not as large by attendance. Bloomsburg Fair, Allentown Fair, York Fair are the three biggest fairs in Pennsylvania; followed by Clearfield and Meadville out in the Western part of the state. We have some large fairs in Pennsylvania. Bloomsburg is one of the twenty-fifth largest fairs in the United States. Sometimes we are twenty-five and York is twenty-four and sometimes we are twenty-four and York is twenty-five.
Another thing that is gone today is the Hoochie-Coochie [burlesque] show. People say, “Well why don’t you have Hoochie-Coochie shows anymore?” It seems like today you see more on television than you used to see at the Bloomsburg Fair shows. I have a story about these shows: when I was seventeen a rather buxom young lady came out before the show and called me up on stage, gave me a dollar to give her and she lost that dollar, and said that I could go into the show, so I went to the show, and it was very interesting.
The next day I went to church, and I remember coming out of the church and the pastor asked me: “How did you like that show?” I think he was in the crowd outside the show when I went in. He never told me that, and I never really asked him, but I had a sneaky suspicion he saw me up on the stage. There were many other stories, many.
Today the Fair is mostly a family thing. And I hope it stays that way. Now we have three stages with a lot of good family entertainment. We have tigers, lions, bears and you name it; and a lot of young people haven’t seen some of these animals, exotic animals. And a lot of people, from more urbanized areas are coming and they haven’t seen cows, or chickens, or animals being born. It is a new experience for them. We have something for everybody. I also think that the focus, at this point in time, is the continuation of family entertainment. We have a policy of no alcohol on the fairground, and a lot of fairs make a lot of money with alcohol. I would hope the fair continues this policy of no alcohol, because as long as we are a traditional family fair we will continue to grow. If that is lost it would be sad. The essence of the fair and the essence of the Bloom spirit would be lost. We also don’t have a lot of fights because of the no alcohol policy. Once in a while there’s one, but we try to maintain the image of being a family fair.
Other fairs have gone through having a beer tent, and so forth, I think that is a terrible mistake.
The primary focus is also on agricultural as it always has been from the beginning. If you walk into the buildings, you’ll see a lot of agriculture. And our fair still maintains the cattle, the sheep, the goats, the pigs, they are all here and I think that is one of our strong points because we still remain agricultural. Fairs always have a carnival aspect, or most fairs do, but that is not the major emphasis for ours. The major emphasis has been agriculture and good wholesome entertainment. And I think that, again, is the future. We have seven amphitheatres which could change the fair, and change its composition because fairs cannot stage the big shows. We have to have something new and something different, and by maintaining the agricultural flavor it brings something different. I think that you will see more and more free entertainment and less and less big-name, paid entertainment at the fair in the future. The grandstand itself is still in place. The stage has been torn down and these will the first years for that new stage, so it will be interesting. The new grandstand is a temporary stage, and will be here for at least three years and then the board will decide what they want to do, continue with the temporary stage or build a permanent stage.
There are so many memories, I could sit here all day and tell you.
One of the things that I’ve noticed is that older people still smile. Seems like young people have forgotten how to smile. Have you noticed that? Sometimes, they don’t know how to relate. I think that, if anything, technology has almost made them, I don’t want to say, introverts, but not social. There’s a gap between younger people and older people. When I was growing up, it was “Mrs. Krum, Mr. Krum” you know, and I knew my parents knew who I played with, they knew who my friends were. If you ask a kid today, they’re very reluctant to tell you the last name of a friend. And sometimes they just don’t know. I think it is also that the little child starting at the age of three is told, “Now don’t you talk to strangers” and that’s unfortunate because it makes the child afraid of everybody.
Did you ever have any vandalism at the fair?
Yes, but that has been within the last fifteen years. I mean if a boy or a girl broke a glass, their parents came over and said ‘my son or my daughter broke a window’, that doesn’t happen anymore, now if something is broken you have to call the police. We’ve had that, there have been several instances of vandalism. A lot of it has been graffiti, terrible graffiti, that they had to paint an entire building to cover. Now we have security cameras, and that has taken care of some of it. The cameras have been very helpful, but people report it, especially the neighbors of the fair We have received calls, “Hey there is a kid down here,” so we still have some internal neighborhood securities.
What do you think it is that makes some people love the fair and get really involved?
Well, I think it’s part of the community spirit, I really believe that. It is a spirit that you inherit and you either love it or you hate it. There are a lot of people who are born in the west end of Bloomsburg, and this fair is a very important part of their lives. But the community spirit can engulf more than just Railroad Street and West Bloomsburg. I think it embodies the whole of Columbia and Montour Counties. I think it is that spirit that brings people back again, and again, and again. I think that is why it is growing. I think that is it, as a way to pick up a little extra money. I know during my school years, I picked up money because I worked at a fair stand, and I worked as a chicken collector. In high school I remember I was stuck at a gate in the rain for a whole week, but I made sixty bucks and I thought that was great.
Mr. Debra Heckel-Baigis
Bloomsburg Fair Volunteer/employee Barton House
Over 20 years - involved at the Bloomsburg Fair
Primary Occupation: Clothing Business Owner
Interview July 3, 2008
How long have you been working at the Bloomsburg fair?
Actually, I’ve gone to the Fair every year, probably, ever since 1971. But, I’ve only really worked for payment recently. I did the gates, one year, and hated that. I now work showing the Barton House Gardens to people. I also answer questions about the Gardens. I have been getting paid to do tours of the garden for maybe six years, but I did volunteer work before. The volunteering was to make the flowers and build the beautiful garden at the Barton House, but getting paid to show people the gardens has only been recently.
The Barton House has been open to the public since the 1990s. It’s historically preserved, and they tried to do the wallpaper and the carpeting as it was. They even had special carpeting made by the Magee Company. The house has been open since the1990s, but about ten years ago we started to make an historic garden. Diana Beishline researches a lot of historical plants, and then we all go and dig and plant. Now these tasks are part of the community Herb Guild.
Diana, whose husband was one of the officers, belongs to the Herb Guild, and she thought that this would be a good project. It is a good committee for the Herb Guild to work on.
Do you have any memories of the things that have gone on?
I have great stories. One year we had a castor-bean plant, and the leaves were enormous. We don’t have it anymore because it is a poisonous plant. But when we had this plant, people visiting the garden would tell me stories about, when they were little; how (people in the 70s or 80s) they were made to take castor oil. One of these people told me, “My mother made me take castor-oil every morning, and to this day I can’t get near eggs,” because they associate eggs in the morning with castor-oil. People have great stories.
A lot of people will come through and say there grandfather was the caretaker there, and people that had lived there also visit, so we do get a lot of people who have lots of information. I think the house is in its original location. I also think there was a big barn that is gone now. But people say there were parties at the house, and that they had come with friends whose parents lived there, grandparents lived there, and they would come to wild parties and some not-so-wild parties. I believe the house was occupied up until the 1970s. So people lived within the fairgrounds.
I am not originally from Bloomsburg, so not a native. I came to college here in 1971, and never left. I love this community and I love the Fair! The thing about it is that my family, from New Jersey, loves the Fair too. So, it’s a win-win situation. They love the Fair, they love me, they love to come to Bloomsburg. They come for shows. They come to see everything. So I get company. Everybody gets company. People come from everywhere. It is a family tradition. And now I have a Fair-share. I bought a Fair-share with my own money in 1994. Bu, I bought that Fair-share because I wanted to park up front, because we lived outside of town. Ironically, I now I live two blocks from the fair and I can walk over. But I’m not willing to sell my share. I have two boys, and I can pass the share down to them. I believe they are valuable beyond money and who knows how many Fair-shares there are?
I also remember working the gate. I hated that! I’d have to say, “Stay in your lane! Stay in your lane!” for eight hours a day. I hated that stuff. Some people do like it, I can’t believe they would, but some people do it every year. I said I’d never do it again, but people do it. You make about four hundred dollars for the week. It’s minimum wage, and some people work from eight in the morning until eight at night. I know of one girl, whose parents lived in Orangeville, who now lives in Ohio, and she comes in to work the fair. Somebody else just does it for six hours, takes off a week from work, and uses her vacation time so that she gets the chunk of money. For some people it’s more than eight hours a day. Some people are on their feet for twelve, or even fourteen hours a day.
The first time I went to the Bloomsburg Fair was when I was in college. I dated this crazy college boy, and he loved the fair, too. I think he imparted that to me. I remember one time, we went to an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner place at the Fair, but I didn’t want all-you-can-eat spaghetti, so I took a taste of his and we got charged for it. I was so mad; he was mad at me. It was just a taste, but they thought we were pulling a scam, which I can see a lot of people doing. This boyfriend loved the fair so much that, even the next day, after the Fair was closed, he would go down and just walk around and just be amazed at how the fair was gone. It was still like a day at the Fair. He would always get a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish ham and cheese sandwich, so that he could eat it the next day. So the Fair was still part of your blood. We would also go and watch the Fair being set up. Lots of people do that.
I grew up in New Jersey, so we had the Boardwalk which is a little like a fair. So, to me, it was like a people-watching experience. And you see people you haven’t seen in a million years. I see people that I knew from college, thirty-five years later. It’s like a big party. It is a big party where you know everybody.
People I’ve interviewed so far are concerned about the prices this year.
Yes, I agree. However, there’s the flip-side to that: people aren’t spending money going to Florida or taking their kids to Disney, or taking vacations to the shore. They’re saving their money. My kids adore the Fair, and it’s so perfect that we live right across the street. I mean two blocks. We ride our bikes. My youngest, since he was eight years old, would listen to the band at the Free Band Shelter. Right next to the band shell, there was the Gem Mine stand. My son was just hanging-out watching and, before I knew it, I’d say, “Okay Jake, it’s time to go,” [and he’d say,] “I can’t…I’m walking the blind dog.” The owner of the Gem Mine had a blind dog and Jake took care of the blind dog. So, he came back and said, “Okay, I’ll be back in ten minutes,” so we walked around. Even though I didn’t know this guy from Adam, you could sort of sense he was a good guy. The next thing I know my son has an apron on, he’s filling buckets of sand for the Gem mine, and he’s eight years old. I said I’ll come back in half and hour. Then, he’s waiting on people, because he was just a personable kid. He got his ten-year-old brother the job there, too. So both of my boys have worked at the fair since they were eight and ten.
Nowadays, people would probably think I was nuts. But, you know what, we know so many people that have stands at the fair, and my kids are sort of aware; my younger son even wanted to buy the stand.
Tell me about the Barton House.
It’s a historical house. We have every age group coming to see it. We get people that bring their young kids, we get some school groups in. It’s on the website now. Just last year, some people came through and said, “I’ve been to this Fair for thirty years, and I’ve never known this house was here,” but they found out about it on the website, because [the web site] says Barton House, and they click on it and it talks about the historical garden. I give away seeds, and people come back and tell me that they’re so happy that I gave them seeds. I really enjoy my job because I like flowers. Although, by the end of the week, I’m so tired of saying the same thing, I try to vary it a little bit. My schedule is ten to five every day. And, for the girls inside, schedule is the same. Ten to five is sort of nice for the workers, because it’s hard to get people to work for minimum wage. The Barton House story is described in the book about the fair. That’s an interesting story. I think some Vietnamese refugees lived in the house in the 1970s.
Every day is a different story. People just love to tell you their life stories, and how they love gardening and about coming there when they were kids. You know people just love the Fair.
Something else I remember is that my husband and I, when we were first dating, drove the tram out to the parking lots, on a big tractor. When we were dating, I would go sort of sit on his lap a little bit while he was driving the tram. There’s sort of like a little bumper thing. It might even be enclosed. That was sort of fun, and he always had a story about how people couldn’t find their cars. And the tram drivers were very patient. They would take people around and ask about what time of day they came in. And then, when my kids were little, that was like a free ride: the tram ride. Even though we could park right up front with the free parking, I’d say, “lets go for a tram ride,” and we would just take that all the way out. We’d just get on, and the driver would say, “Well, where are you parked?” We’d say, “We’re just taking a ride.”
Was my work at the Fair ever mentioned in the newspaper? Well, I did call the Press Enterprise because I wanted them to come and interview us. Last year, we did something special, we had a quiz in the garden, “Can You Guess This Vegetable.” I had about six or eight signs around, and some people had no idea. A lot of people don’t know what gardening is all about. Asparagus, people, after it’s gone to seed, don’t know what it looks like. Swiss chard, a lot of people didn’t know Swiss chard. We had some rhubarb, and horseradish, and I can’t even think of what some of the other things were. I thought more people would be interested in it. Not a lot were. And I also had people guess the scent of the scented geraniums. That was sort of fun. People could rub the leaves and smell. And, that’s another thing I love. I love having kids and saying, “taste this and see what you think it is,” with Anise seed or some Fennel. Some people really love it, and some people go, “Ewh! I’m not tasting that!” And then, a couple of times, I’d give visitors a piece of Fennel seed or let them taste Fennel, and if they hated black-licorice, they’d get a little bit mad at me. Finally, I’d say, “do you like black jelly beans?” And then, if they said yes, I’d give them fennel seeds to try.
Channel 16 came through, and did interview me about volunteering at the Barton House. The Herb Guild would volunteer in two-hour increments during the Fair, but sometimes people wouldn’t come or it was hard to fill a whole schedule. So that’s when they decided to hire a person.
If you could summarize the fair what would you say?
I love the Fair. I’m so glad it’s one week only. I think two weeks would be too much. You see people you haven’t seen in a long time, and it’s such a tradition. My mother and sisters come down from New Jersey, and old college friends come down. I mail them a ticket. And, you don’t have to cook all week! People that complain about the price! I mean, you can save all year. You don’t have to spend much money because there’s so much free entertainment. You can pack a sandwich and eat it there, but why would you want to?
One other thing, this year at the Barton House we’re going to be making sauerkraut with cabbage. They’re going to be trying to do it there. We also always have a big watermelon. We give people tastes of the watermelon. Although, one year, when I cut it up, I must have tasted a good part and the inside was not so good, and people were saying, “Ew! You’re trying to poison me!” And people were saving seeds. Yeah, I always have a watermelon cut to give. Diana Beishline,. I think she’s the one who knows all about the seeds, and she may take them to someone’s greenhouse. They start a lot of the seedlings. Then she plants them. We all plant them.
There are tons of magazines for heirloom plants. We do have the morning glories, which are supposedly from this area, and Catawissa onions are local: from a grandmother’s garden, passed down, so that they’re a hundred years old. I am not sure how historically accurate the house and grounds are really, since the barn is gone, and I don’t think the outhouse is the original. But somebody had a great story about the outhouse. I should write this stuff down, shouldn’t I?
Actually, I’ve gone to the Fair every year, probably, ever since 1971. But, I’ve only really worked for payment recently. I did the gates, one year, and hated that. I now work showing the Barton House Gardens to people. I also answer questions about the Gardens. I have been getting paid to do tours of the garden for maybe six years, but I did volunteer work before. The volunteering was to make the flowers and build the beautiful garden at the Barton House, but getting paid to show people the gardens has only been recently.
The Barton House has been open to the public since the 1990s. It’s historically preserved, and they tried to do the wallpaper and the carpeting as it was. They even had special carpeting made by the Magee Company. The house has been open since the1990s, but about ten years ago we started to make an historic garden. Diana Beishline researches a lot of historical plants, and then we all go and dig and plant. Now these tasks are part of the community Herb Guild.
Diana, whose husband was one of the officers, belongs to the Herb Guild, and she thought that this would be a good project. It is a good committee for the Herb Guild to work on.
Do you have any memories of the things that have gone on?
I have great stories. One year we had a castor-bean plant, and the leaves were enormous. We don’t have it anymore because it is a poisonous plant. But when we had this plant, people visiting the garden would tell me stories about, when they were little; how (people in the 70s or 80s) they were made to take castor oil. One of these people told me, “My mother made me take castor-oil every morning, and to this day I can’t get near eggs,” because they associate eggs in the morning with castor-oil. People have great stories.
A lot of people will come through and say there grandfather was the caretaker there, and people that had lived there also visit, so we do get a lot of people who have lots of information. I think the house is in its original location. I also think there was a big barn that is gone now. But people say there were parties at the house, and that they had come with friends whose parents lived there, grandparents lived there, and they would come to wild parties and some not-so-wild parties. I believe the house was occupied up until the 1970s. So people lived within the fairgrounds.
I am not originally from Bloomsburg, so not a native. I came to college here in 1971, and never left. I love this community and I love the Fair! The thing about it is that my family, from New Jersey, loves the Fair too. So, it’s a win-win situation. They love the Fair, they love me, they love to come to Bloomsburg. They come for shows. They come to see everything. So I get company. Everybody gets company. People come from everywhere. It is a family tradition. And now I have a Fair-share. I bought a Fair-share with my own money in 1994. Bu, I bought that Fair-share because I wanted to park up front, because we lived outside of town. Ironically, I now I live two blocks from the fair and I can walk over. But I’m not willing to sell my share. I have two boys, and I can pass the share down to them. I believe they are valuable beyond money and who knows how many Fair-shares there are?
I also remember working the gate. I hated that! I’d have to say, “Stay in your lane! Stay in your lane!” for eight hours a day. I hated that stuff. Some people do like it, I can’t believe they would, but some people do it every year. I said I’d never do it again, but people do it. You make about four hundred dollars for the week. It’s minimum wage, and some people work from eight in the morning until eight at night. I know of one girl, whose parents lived in Orangeville, who now lives in Ohio, and she comes in to work the fair. Somebody else just does it for six hours, takes off a week from work, and uses her vacation time so that she gets the chunk of money. For some people it’s more than eight hours a day. Some people are on their feet for twelve, or even fourteen hours a day.
The first time I went to the Bloomsburg Fair was when I was in college. I dated this crazy college boy, and he loved the fair, too. I think he imparted that to me. I remember one time, we went to an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner place at the Fair, but I didn’t want all-you-can-eat spaghetti, so I took a taste of his and we got charged for it. I was so mad; he was mad at me. It was just a taste, but they thought we were pulling a scam, which I can see a lot of people doing. This boyfriend loved the fair so much that, even the next day, after the Fair was closed, he would go down and just walk around and just be amazed at how the fair was gone. It was still like a day at the Fair. He would always get a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish ham and cheese sandwich, so that he could eat it the next day. So the Fair was still part of your blood. We would also go and watch the Fair being set up. Lots of people do that.
I grew up in New Jersey, so we had the Boardwalk which is a little like a fair. So, to me, it was like a people-watching experience. And you see people you haven’t seen in a million years. I see people that I knew from college, thirty-five years later. It’s like a big party. It is a big party where you know everybody.
People I’ve interviewed so far are concerned about the prices this year.
Yes, I agree. However, there’s the flip-side to that: people aren’t spending money going to Florida or taking their kids to Disney, or taking vacations to the shore. They’re saving their money. My kids adore the Fair, and it’s so perfect that we live right across the street. I mean two blocks. We ride our bikes. My youngest, since he was eight years old, would listen to the band at the Free Band Shelter. Right next to the band shell, there was the Gem Mine stand. My son was just hanging-out watching and, before I knew it, I’d say, “Okay Jake, it’s time to go,” [and he’d say,] “I can’t…I’m walking the blind dog.” The owner of the Gem Mine had a blind dog and Jake took care of the blind dog. So, he came back and said, “Okay, I’ll be back in ten minutes,” so we walked around. Even though I didn’t know this guy from Adam, you could sort of sense he was a good guy. The next thing I know my son has an apron on, he’s filling buckets of sand for the Gem mine, and he’s eight years old. I said I’ll come back in half and hour. Then, he’s waiting on people, because he was just a personable kid. He got his ten-year-old brother the job there, too. So both of my boys have worked at the fair since they were eight and ten.
Nowadays, people would probably think I was nuts. But, you know what, we know so many people that have stands at the fair, and my kids are sort of aware; my younger son even wanted to buy the stand.
Tell me about the Barton House.
It’s a historical house. We have every age group coming to see it. We get people that bring their young kids, we get some school groups in. It’s on the website now. Just last year, some people came through and said, “I’ve been to this Fair for thirty years, and I’ve never known this house was here,” but they found out about it on the website, because [the web site] says Barton House, and they click on it and it talks about the historical garden. I give away seeds, and people come back and tell me that they’re so happy that I gave them seeds. I really enjoy my job because I like flowers. Although, by the end of the week, I’m so tired of saying the same thing, I try to vary it a little bit. My schedule is ten to five every day. And, for the girls inside, schedule is the same. Ten to five is sort of nice for the workers, because it’s hard to get people to work for minimum wage. The Barton House story is described in the book about the fair. That’s an interesting story. I think some Vietnamese refugees lived in the house in the 1970s.
Every day is a different story. People just love to tell you their life stories, and how they love gardening and about coming there when they were kids. You know people just love the Fair.
Something else I remember is that my husband and I, when we were first dating, drove the tram out to the parking lots, on a big tractor. When we were dating, I would go sort of sit on his lap a little bit while he was driving the tram. There’s sort of like a little bumper thing. It might even be enclosed. That was sort of fun, and he always had a story about how people couldn’t find their cars. And the tram drivers were very patient. They would take people around and ask about what time of day they came in. And then, when my kids were little, that was like a free ride: the tram ride. Even though we could park right up front with the free parking, I’d say, “lets go for a tram ride,” and we would just take that all the way out. We’d just get on, and the driver would say, “Well, where are you parked?” We’d say, “We’re just taking a ride.”
Was my work at the Fair ever mentioned in the newspaper? Well, I did call the Press Enterprise because I wanted them to come and interview us. Last year, we did something special, we had a quiz in the garden, “Can You Guess This Vegetable.” I had about six or eight signs around, and some people had no idea. A lot of people don’t know what gardening is all about. Asparagus, people, after it’s gone to seed, don’t know what it looks like. Swiss chard, a lot of people didn’t know Swiss chard. We had some rhubarb, and horseradish, and I can’t even think of what some of the other things were. I thought more people would be interested in it. Not a lot were. And I also had people guess the scent of the scented geraniums. That was sort of fun. People could rub the leaves and smell. And, that’s another thing I love. I love having kids and saying, “taste this and see what you think it is,” with Anise seed or some Fennel. Some people really love it, and some people go, “Ewh! I’m not tasting that!” And then, a couple of times, I’d give visitors a piece of Fennel seed or let them taste Fennel, and if they hated black-licorice, they’d get a little bit mad at me. Finally, I’d say, “do you like black jelly beans?” And then, if they said yes, I’d give them fennel seeds to try.
Channel 16 came through, and did interview me about volunteering at the Barton House. The Herb Guild would volunteer in two-hour increments during the Fair, but sometimes people wouldn’t come or it was hard to fill a whole schedule. So that’s when they decided to hire a person.
If you could summarize the fair what would you say?
I love the Fair. I’m so glad it’s one week only. I think two weeks would be too much. You see people you haven’t seen in a long time, and it’s such a tradition. My mother and sisters come down from New Jersey, and old college friends come down. I mail them a ticket. And, you don’t have to cook all week! People that complain about the price! I mean, you can save all year. You don’t have to spend much money because there’s so much free entertainment. You can pack a sandwich and eat it there, but why would you want to?
One other thing, this year at the Barton House we’re going to be making sauerkraut with cabbage. They’re going to be trying to do it there. We also always have a big watermelon. We give people tastes of the watermelon. Although, one year, when I cut it up, I must have tasted a good part and the inside was not so good, and people were saying, “Ew! You’re trying to poison me!” And people were saving seeds. Yeah, I always have a watermelon cut to give. Diana Beishline,. I think she’s the one who knows all about the seeds, and she may take them to someone’s greenhouse. They start a lot of the seedlings. Then she plants them. We all plant them.
There are tons of magazines for heirloom plants. We do have the morning glories, which are supposedly from this area, and Catawissa onions are local: from a grandmother’s garden, passed down, so that they’re a hundred years old. I am not sure how historically accurate the house and grounds are really, since the barn is gone, and I don’t think the outhouse is the original. But somebody had a great story about the outhouse. I should write this stuff down, shouldn’t I?
Nancy and Dick Bowman
Bloomsburg Fair Food Vendors, Family business
Bowman French Fries and candies
Over 60 years working at Bloomsburg Fair
Primary Occupation (Mr. Bowman): Delivery Truck Driver Weis Potato Chips
Fair stands (Mrs. Bowman's life's work)
Interview June 23, 2008
Bowman French Fries and candies
Over 60 years working at Bloomsburg Fair
Primary Occupation (Mr. Bowman): Delivery Truck Driver Weis Potato Chips
Fair stands (Mrs. Bowman's life's work)
Interview June 23, 2008
How long have you been working at the Bloomsburg fair?
Actually, I’ve gone to the Fair every year, probably, ever since 1971. But, I’ve only really worked for payment recently. I did the gates, one year, and hated that. I now work showing the Barton House Gardens to people. I also answer questions about the Gardens. I have been getting paid to do tours of the garden for maybe six years, but I did volunteer work before. The volunteering was to make the flowers and build the beautiful garden at the Barton House, but getting paid to show people the gardens has only been recently.
The Barton House has been open to the public since the 1990s. It’s historically preserved, and they tried to do the wallpaper and the carpeting as it was. They even had special carpeting made by the Magee Company. The house has been open since the1990s, but about ten years ago we started to make an historic garden. Diana Beishline researches a lot of historical plants, and then we all go and dig and plant. Now these tasks are part of the community Herb Guild.
Diana, whose husband was one of the officers, belongs to the Herb Guild, and she thought that this would be a good project. It is a good committee for the Herb Guild to work on.
Do you have any memories of the things that have gone on?
I have great stories. One year we had a castor-bean plant, and the leaves were enormous. We don’t have it anymore because it is a poisonous plant. But when we had this plant, people visiting the garden would tell me stories about, when they were little; how (people in the 70s or 80s) they were made to take castor oil. One of these people told me, “My mother made me take castor-oil every morning, and to this day I can’t get near eggs,” because they associate eggs in the morning with castor-oil. People have great stories.
A lot of people will come through and say there grandfather was the caretaker there, and people that had lived there also visit, so we do get a lot of people who have lots of information. I think the house is in its original location. I also think there was a big barn that is gone now. But people say there were parties at the house, and that they had come with friends whose parents lived there, grandparents lived there, and they would come to wild parties and some not-so-wild parties. I believe the house was occupied up until the 1970s. So people lived within the fairgrounds.
I am not originally from Bloomsburg, so not a native. I came to college here in 1971, and never left. I love this community and I love the Fair! The thing about it is that my family, from New Jersey, loves the Fair too. So, it’s a win-win situation. They love the Fair, they love me, they love to come to Bloomsburg. They come for shows. They come to see everything. So I get company. Everybody gets company. People come from everywhere. It is a family tradition. And now I have a Fair-share. I bought a Fair-share with my own money in 1994. Bu, I bought that Fair-share because I wanted to park up front, because we lived outside of town. Ironically, I now I live two blocks from the fair and I can walk over. But I’m not willing to sell my share. I have two boys, and I can pass the share down to them. I believe they are valuable beyond money and who knows how many Fair-shares there are?
I also remember working the gate. I hated that! I’d have to say, “Stay in your lane! Stay in your lane!” for eight hours a day. I hated that stuff. Some people do like it, I can’t believe they would, but some people do it every year. I said I’d never do it again, but people do it. You make about four hundred dollars for the week. It’s minimum wage, and some people work from eight in the morning until eight at night. I know of one girl, whose parents lived in Orangeville, who now lives in Ohio, and she comes in to work the fair. Somebody else just does it for six hours, takes off a week from work, and uses her vacation time so that she gets the chunk of money. For some people it’s more than eight hours a day. Some people are on their feet for twelve, or even fourteen hours a day.
The first time I went to the Bloomsburg Fair was when I was in college. I dated this crazy college boy, and he loved the fair, too. I think he imparted that to me. I remember one time, we went to an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner place at the Fair, but I didn’t want all-you-can-eat spaghetti, so I took a taste of his and we got charged for it. I was so mad; he was mad at me. It was just a taste, but they thought we were pulling a scam, which I can see a lot of people doing. This boyfriend loved the fair so much that, even the next day, after the Fair was closed, he would go down and just walk around and just be amazed at how the fair was gone. It was still like a day at the Fair. He would always get a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish ham and cheese sandwich, so that he could eat it the next day. So the Fair was still part of your blood. We would also go and watch the Fair being set up. Lots of people do that.
I grew up in New Jersey, so we had the Boardwalk which is a little like a fair. So, to me, it was like a people-watching experience. And you see people you haven’t seen in a million years. I see people that I knew from college, thirty-five years later. It’s like a big party. It is a big party where you know everybody.
People I’ve interviewed so far are concerned about the prices this year.
Yes, I agree. However, there’s the flip-side to that: people aren’t spending money going to Florida or taking their kids to Disney, or taking vacations to the shore. They’re saving their money. My kids adore the Fair, and it’s so perfect that we live right across the street. I mean two blocks. We ride our bikes. My youngest, since he was eight years old, would listen to the band at the Free Band Shelter. Right next to the band shell, there was the Gem Mine stand. My son was just hanging-out watching and, before I knew it, I’d say, “Okay Jake, it’s time to go,” [and he’d say,] “I can’t…I’m walking the blind dog.” The owner of the Gem Mine had a blind dog and Jake took care of the blind dog. So, he came back and said, “Okay, I’ll be back in ten minutes,” so we walked around. Even though I didn’t know this guy from Adam, you could sort of sense he was a good guy. The next thing I know my son has an apron on, he’s filling buckets of sand for the Gem mine, and he’s eight years old. I said I’ll come back in half and hour. Then, he’s waiting on people, because he was just a personable kid. He got his ten-year-old brother the job there, too. So both of my boys have worked at the fair since they were eight and ten.
Nowadays, people would probably think I was nuts. But, you know what, we know so many people that have stands at the fair, and my kids are sort of aware; my younger son even wanted to buy the stand.
Tell me about the Barton House.
It’s a historical house. We have every age group coming to see it. We get people that bring their young kids, we get some school groups in. It’s on the website now. Just last year, some people came through and said, “I’ve been to this Fair for thirty years, and I’ve never known this house was here,” but they found out about it on the website, because [the web site] says Barton House, and they click on it and it talks about the historical garden. I give away seeds, and people come back and tell me that they’re so happy that I gave them seeds. I really enjoy my job because I like flowers. Although, by the end of the week, I’m so tired of saying the same thing, I try to vary it a little bit. My schedule is ten to five every day. And, for the girls inside, schedule is the same. Ten to five is sort of nice for the workers, because it’s hard to get people to work for minimum wage. The Barton House story is described in the book about the fair. That’s an interesting story. I think some Vietnamese refugees lived in the house in the 1970s.
Every day is a different story. People just love to tell you their life stories, and how they love gardening and about coming there when they were kids. You know people just love the Fair.
Something else I remember is that my husband and I, when we were first dating, drove the tram out to the parking lots, on a big tractor. When we were dating, I would go sort of sit on his lap a little bit while he was driving the tram. There’s sort of like a little bumper thing. It might even be enclosed. That was sort of fun, and he always had a story about how people couldn’t find their cars. And the tram drivers were very patient. They would take people around and ask about what time of day they came in. And then, when my kids were little, that was like a free ride: the tram ride. Even though we could park right up front with the free parking, I’d say, “lets go for a tram ride,” and we would just take that all the way out. We’d just get on, and the driver would say, “Well, where are you parked?” We’d say, “We’re just taking a ride.”
Was my work at the Fair ever mentioned in the newspaper? Well, I did call the Press Enterprise because I wanted them to come and interview us. Last year, we did something special, we had a quiz in the garden, “Can You Guess This Vegetable.” I had about six or eight signs around, and some people had no idea. A lot of people don’t know what gardening is all about. Asparagus, people, after it’s gone to seed, don’t know what it looks like. Swiss chard, a lot of people didn’t know Swiss chard. We had some rhubarb, and horseradish, and I can’t even think of what some of the other things were. I thought more people would be interested in it. Not a lot were. And I also had people guess the scent of the scented geraniums. That was sort of fun. People could rub the leaves and smell. And, that’s another thing I love. I love having kids and saying, “taste this and see what you think it is,” with Anise seed or some Fennel. Some people really love it, and some people go, “Ewh! I’m not tasting that!” And then, a couple of times, I’d give visitors a piece of Fennel seed or let them taste Fennel, and if they hated black-licorice, they’d get a little bit mad at me. Finally, I’d say, “do you like black jelly beans?” And then, if they said yes, I’d give them fennel seeds to try.
Channel 16 came through, and did interview me about volunteering at the Barton House. The Herb Guild would volunteer in two-hour increments during the Fair, but sometimes people wouldn’t come or it was hard to fill a whole schedule. So that’s when they decided to hire a person.
If you could summarize the fair what would you say?
I love the Fair. I’m so glad it’s one week only. I think two weeks would be too much. You see people you haven’t seen in a long time, and it’s such a tradition. My mother and sisters come down from New Jersey, and old college friends come down. I mail them a ticket. And, you don’t have to cook all week! People that complain about the price! I mean, you can save all year. You don’t have to spend much money because there’s so much free entertainment. You can pack a sandwich and eat it there, but why would you want to?
One other thing, this year at the Barton House we’re going to be making sauerkraut with cabbage. They’re going to be trying to do it there. We also always have a big watermelon. We give people tastes of the watermelon. Although, one year, when I cut it up, I must have tasted a good part and the inside was not so good, and people were saying, “Ew! You’re trying to poison me!” And people were saving seeds. Yeah, I always have a watermelon cut to give. Diana Beishline,. I think she’s the one who knows all about the seeds, and she may take them to someone’s greenhouse. They start a lot of the seedlings. Then she plants them. We all plant them.
There are tons of magazines for heirloom plants. We do have the morning glories, which are supposedly from this area, and Catawissa onions are local: from a grandmother’s garden, passed down, so that they’re a hundred years old. I am not sure how historically accurate the house and grounds are really, since the barn is gone, and I don’t think the outhouse is the original. But somebody had a great story about the outhouse. I should write this stuff down, shouldn’t I?
Actually, I’ve gone to the Fair every year, probably, ever since 1971. But, I’ve only really worked for payment recently. I did the gates, one year, and hated that. I now work showing the Barton House Gardens to people. I also answer questions about the Gardens. I have been getting paid to do tours of the garden for maybe six years, but I did volunteer work before. The volunteering was to make the flowers and build the beautiful garden at the Barton House, but getting paid to show people the gardens has only been recently.
The Barton House has been open to the public since the 1990s. It’s historically preserved, and they tried to do the wallpaper and the carpeting as it was. They even had special carpeting made by the Magee Company. The house has been open since the1990s, but about ten years ago we started to make an historic garden. Diana Beishline researches a lot of historical plants, and then we all go and dig and plant. Now these tasks are part of the community Herb Guild.
Diana, whose husband was one of the officers, belongs to the Herb Guild, and she thought that this would be a good project. It is a good committee for the Herb Guild to work on.
Do you have any memories of the things that have gone on?
I have great stories. One year we had a castor-bean plant, and the leaves were enormous. We don’t have it anymore because it is a poisonous plant. But when we had this plant, people visiting the garden would tell me stories about, when they were little; how (people in the 70s or 80s) they were made to take castor oil. One of these people told me, “My mother made me take castor-oil every morning, and to this day I can’t get near eggs,” because they associate eggs in the morning with castor-oil. People have great stories.
A lot of people will come through and say there grandfather was the caretaker there, and people that had lived there also visit, so we do get a lot of people who have lots of information. I think the house is in its original location. I also think there was a big barn that is gone now. But people say there were parties at the house, and that they had come with friends whose parents lived there, grandparents lived there, and they would come to wild parties and some not-so-wild parties. I believe the house was occupied up until the 1970s. So people lived within the fairgrounds.
I am not originally from Bloomsburg, so not a native. I came to college here in 1971, and never left. I love this community and I love the Fair! The thing about it is that my family, from New Jersey, loves the Fair too. So, it’s a win-win situation. They love the Fair, they love me, they love to come to Bloomsburg. They come for shows. They come to see everything. So I get company. Everybody gets company. People come from everywhere. It is a family tradition. And now I have a Fair-share. I bought a Fair-share with my own money in 1994. Bu, I bought that Fair-share because I wanted to park up front, because we lived outside of town. Ironically, I now I live two blocks from the fair and I can walk over. But I’m not willing to sell my share. I have two boys, and I can pass the share down to them. I believe they are valuable beyond money and who knows how many Fair-shares there are?
I also remember working the gate. I hated that! I’d have to say, “Stay in your lane! Stay in your lane!” for eight hours a day. I hated that stuff. Some people do like it, I can’t believe they would, but some people do it every year. I said I’d never do it again, but people do it. You make about four hundred dollars for the week. It’s minimum wage, and some people work from eight in the morning until eight at night. I know of one girl, whose parents lived in Orangeville, who now lives in Ohio, and she comes in to work the fair. Somebody else just does it for six hours, takes off a week from work, and uses her vacation time so that she gets the chunk of money. For some people it’s more than eight hours a day. Some people are on their feet for twelve, or even fourteen hours a day.
The first time I went to the Bloomsburg Fair was when I was in college. I dated this crazy college boy, and he loved the fair, too. I think he imparted that to me. I remember one time, we went to an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner place at the Fair, but I didn’t want all-you-can-eat spaghetti, so I took a taste of his and we got charged for it. I was so mad; he was mad at me. It was just a taste, but they thought we were pulling a scam, which I can see a lot of people doing. This boyfriend loved the fair so much that, even the next day, after the Fair was closed, he would go down and just walk around and just be amazed at how the fair was gone. It was still like a day at the Fair. He would always get a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish ham and cheese sandwich, so that he could eat it the next day. So the Fair was still part of your blood. We would also go and watch the Fair being set up. Lots of people do that.
I grew up in New Jersey, so we had the Boardwalk which is a little like a fair. So, to me, it was like a people-watching experience. And you see people you haven’t seen in a million years. I see people that I knew from college, thirty-five years later. It’s like a big party. It is a big party where you know everybody.
People I’ve interviewed so far are concerned about the prices this year.
Yes, I agree. However, there’s the flip-side to that: people aren’t spending money going to Florida or taking their kids to Disney, or taking vacations to the shore. They’re saving their money. My kids adore the Fair, and it’s so perfect that we live right across the street. I mean two blocks. We ride our bikes. My youngest, since he was eight years old, would listen to the band at the Free Band Shelter. Right next to the band shell, there was the Gem Mine stand. My son was just hanging-out watching and, before I knew it, I’d say, “Okay Jake, it’s time to go,” [and he’d say,] “I can’t…I’m walking the blind dog.” The owner of the Gem Mine had a blind dog and Jake took care of the blind dog. So, he came back and said, “Okay, I’ll be back in ten minutes,” so we walked around. Even though I didn’t know this guy from Adam, you could sort of sense he was a good guy. The next thing I know my son has an apron on, he’s filling buckets of sand for the Gem mine, and he’s eight years old. I said I’ll come back in half and hour. Then, he’s waiting on people, because he was just a personable kid. He got his ten-year-old brother the job there, too. So both of my boys have worked at the fair since they were eight and ten.
Nowadays, people would probably think I was nuts. But, you know what, we know so many people that have stands at the fair, and my kids are sort of aware; my younger son even wanted to buy the stand.
Tell me about the Barton House.
It’s a historical house. We have every age group coming to see it. We get people that bring their young kids, we get some school groups in. It’s on the website now. Just last year, some people came through and said, “I’ve been to this Fair for thirty years, and I’ve never known this house was here,” but they found out about it on the website, because [the web site] says Barton House, and they click on it and it talks about the historical garden. I give away seeds, and people come back and tell me that they’re so happy that I gave them seeds. I really enjoy my job because I like flowers. Although, by the end of the week, I’m so tired of saying the same thing, I try to vary it a little bit. My schedule is ten to five every day. And, for the girls inside, schedule is the same. Ten to five is sort of nice for the workers, because it’s hard to get people to work for minimum wage. The Barton House story is described in the book about the fair. That’s an interesting story. I think some Vietnamese refugees lived in the house in the 1970s.
Every day is a different story. People just love to tell you their life stories, and how they love gardening and about coming there when they were kids. You know people just love the Fair.
Something else I remember is that my husband and I, when we were first dating, drove the tram out to the parking lots, on a big tractor. When we were dating, I would go sort of sit on his lap a little bit while he was driving the tram. There’s sort of like a little bumper thing. It might even be enclosed. That was sort of fun, and he always had a story about how people couldn’t find their cars. And the tram drivers were very patient. They would take people around and ask about what time of day they came in. And then, when my kids were little, that was like a free ride: the tram ride. Even though we could park right up front with the free parking, I’d say, “lets go for a tram ride,” and we would just take that all the way out. We’d just get on, and the driver would say, “Well, where are you parked?” We’d say, “We’re just taking a ride.”
Was my work at the Fair ever mentioned in the newspaper? Well, I did call the Press Enterprise because I wanted them to come and interview us. Last year, we did something special, we had a quiz in the garden, “Can You Guess This Vegetable.” I had about six or eight signs around, and some people had no idea. A lot of people don’t know what gardening is all about. Asparagus, people, after it’s gone to seed, don’t know what it looks like. Swiss chard, a lot of people didn’t know Swiss chard. We had some rhubarb, and horseradish, and I can’t even think of what some of the other things were. I thought more people would be interested in it. Not a lot were. And I also had people guess the scent of the scented geraniums. That was sort of fun. People could rub the leaves and smell. And, that’s another thing I love. I love having kids and saying, “taste this and see what you think it is,” with Anise seed or some Fennel. Some people really love it, and some people go, “Ewh! I’m not tasting that!” And then, a couple of times, I’d give visitors a piece of Fennel seed or let them taste Fennel, and if they hated black-licorice, they’d get a little bit mad at me. Finally, I’d say, “do you like black jelly beans?” And then, if they said yes, I’d give them fennel seeds to try.
Channel 16 came through, and did interview me about volunteering at the Barton House. The Herb Guild would volunteer in two-hour increments during the Fair, but sometimes people wouldn’t come or it was hard to fill a whole schedule. So that’s when they decided to hire a person.
If you could summarize the fair what would you say?
I love the Fair. I’m so glad it’s one week only. I think two weeks would be too much. You see people you haven’t seen in a long time, and it’s such a tradition. My mother and sisters come down from New Jersey, and old college friends come down. I mail them a ticket. And, you don’t have to cook all week! People that complain about the price! I mean, you can save all year. You don’t have to spend much money because there’s so much free entertainment. You can pack a sandwich and eat it there, but why would you want to?
One other thing, this year at the Barton House we’re going to be making sauerkraut with cabbage. They’re going to be trying to do it there. We also always have a big watermelon. We give people tastes of the watermelon. Although, one year, when I cut it up, I must have tasted a good part and the inside was not so good, and people were saying, “Ew! You’re trying to poison me!” And people were saving seeds. Yeah, I always have a watermelon cut to give. Diana Beishline,. I think she’s the one who knows all about the seeds, and she may take them to someone’s greenhouse. They start a lot of the seedlings. Then she plants them. We all plant them.
There are tons of magazines for heirloom plants. We do have the morning glories, which are supposedly from this area, and Catawissa onions are local: from a grandmother’s garden, passed down, so that they’re a hundred years old. I am not sure how historically accurate the house and grounds are really, since the barn is gone, and I don’t think the outhouse is the original. But somebody had a great story about the outhouse. I should write this stuff down, shouldn’t I?
Mr. Rick Creasy
Bloomsburg Fair Vendor
Over 43 years working at Bloomsburg Fair
Primary Occupation: Games
Interview July 3, 2008
Over 43 years working at Bloomsburg Fair
Primary Occupation: Games
Interview July 3, 2008
How long have you been working at the Bloomsburg Fair and what have you been doing there?
Well, I started out in the novelty business when I was fourteen. We always got a week off of school, so I worked that week, and it’s what I know, what I wanted to do, and that’s what I’ve done ever since. Now I have six stands with games at the Fair.
When I was starting out, I would take the bus into New York City and go pick up novelties, and then I worked for WT Grant Company as a restaurant manager, but I’ve always done the Bloomsburg Fair. There was a lot of money to be made in the fair business, so I got into the game business in the 1970s. But I started this in1965.
I’ve been there for at least forty-five years. Then I started getting more games, and I got a few more locations, and just did games. Water games, mostly.
When you say “novelties,” you mean you were selling things?
Yeah, end-plates and toys and stuff like that. And that’s how it got started. I now have twenty game stands, but I only put seven or eight at the Fair. I also work at Centre Hall and Honesdale, and other fairs. This is my primary business from May to December.
Has it changed since you started doing this?
We’re not making as much money. It hasn’t been good. We may be grossing a lot more, but we’re netting a lot less, with the cost of merchandise going up dramatically this year. And fuel is terrible. It’s been slowing down. The slow-down is happening because of malls and movie-theatres. It’s just not what it use to be. We have a good group of guys at the Fair now, so that may improve things. For example, Bill Barrett is probably one of the best guys there. He’s real aggressive, and gets things done, and he’s good at that. We’ve seen a lot of change, and it’s all been for the better.
The food is reasonably priced because the Fair doesn’t overcharge the concessionaires. It’s the only fair you can go to and buy a two dollar and fifty cent hot sausage. You go to any other fair it’s six, seven dollars. If you’ve been around, you know what it costs. And we’re very cheap at our Fair. And that’s because of the Fair directors. They’ve kept the price down. That’s what’s made the Fair successful. I like the directors, now. They’re a lot better than a long time ago. It’s much better now. Everything is above board, and Todd Lehman will be a good president, and they’re a pretty good bunch of guys.
Do you have any stories of things that have happened in the past?
I was the first one to put fireworks at the Fair. It turned out to be one of the better things at the Fair. They’re not going to have them this year.
I liked the fireworks. It gave this Fair a little class. I just wanted the help the Fair out. I made money there. Not a lot of it, but the first year the fireworks were out in the field, and then the second year I got them in the infield. Then I donated the plot that sits in front of the fair office. I don’t mind helping the Fair. I wish everyone else would, because, we got to keep that thing going. Attendance has been down, and it’s turning into a nightmare. I don’t know what they can do to remedy that, but there may have been inflated figures before. Even so, the attendance is not there like it used to be. I can remember on a Saturday, the last Saturday of Fair, you could not walk around the Fairgrounds. You can now. It also depends on the weather. And last year it was a little too warm out there.
There are not a whole lot of stories. It’s just that it’s improved a lot. One thing that has changed is that in the 1960s they had the Freak Shows. There are still guys that will go around, but there’s no freak-shows left. They have the fat-guy, and there are still a few freaks living in Florida. But they’re all old, and don’t work anymore. The ones that are still around, they’re interesting people. You could write four chapters about them. There is one guy who is in his seventies. He could tell you stories for hours. Of the guys you have Greg Smith Daniels and Mule-Face Woman, and others. You know, all those real neat freaks. They come, every other year, to the fairs. I think they’ll be at the Fair this year. You could talk to them before the fair this year. Worthall, he’s been in the business fifty years. He knew every freak. He had I don’t know how many freak shows, but you could write a whole chapter on him, easily. He’s the only guy left with bona fide freak-shows. There use to be fifty of them, maybe even a hundred. Now there’s none, except for him. He’s the only one left.
Also, no more girl shows, of course. And all the games are legitimate now, and the Bloomsburg Fair makes sure of that, especially with Bill Barratt. Probably twenty, thirty years ago it was not the case. You had to spend a lot of money to win. If you ever come to any of my games, they’re always crowded, because they know they’re always going to win. The Pennsylvania State Showman’s Association, we have rules and regulations now, and everything is above-board. I know, that’s the case in this part of the country, but in the western part Pennsylvania it’s a different story. They’re still ripping them off, and not on this side. They won’t put up with it. State Police closed a couple of games down at York and Bloomsburg, but never me. The State Police know we’re running above-board. Another local person who does games is Huey Gross. He’s another guy you would want to talk to. His grandfather had a French-fry business, Gross French-Fries. He’s been at the Fair sixty-five years. Now the grandson took it over. They’re in between the Industrial Building and one other building.
You need to talk to Bill Barratt. He’s Head-of-Security. He’s the one who got things rolling at the Fair. You will not find a better man. I have so much respect for him. He gets things done. He doesn’t talk about it; he get things done. He can tell you some stories. And he makes sure that everything is straight down at the Fair. Not just the games, but everything.
How many people have worked for you?
At the Fair, probably twenty people work for me. They’re people who come back year after year. Most of them are local, but I have some that are from Harrisburg. They get paid well, and they want to work.
The people we get also reflects the kind of fair we are. Bloomsburg is pretty much a family fair. Of all the fairs I go to, this is probably the best. They don’t allow beer. There’s nothing worse than a fair with beer because later on, they’re drunk. Fairs like Centre Hall have a different focus. Center Hall is a very unique fair. There’s no fair like it in the country. That fair starts on a Friday, and ends on the Thursday before Labor Day. If you want to see a fair, that one is totally different. They have twelve hundred tents that concessionaires live in, and they have about three thousand customer-campers. It’s just amazing. Just the concessionaires live in the tents in the infield and they keep getting more and more. Out in the parking lot, is where the customer- camping is, and Barratt got plumbing and electric out there, and they’re making money. It is twenty dollars a day to park there, and they keep getting more and more campers. They’ve had more than they’ve ever had out there, probably, three, four, five hundred, customers camping.
I also do Honesdale. A nice little fair. No booze. Hughesville. Another fair near Pheonixville-- It’s a fireman’s fair.
Right now we’re in New Bloomfield. We work carnivals during the spring and summer. For carnivals we just work nights from six to ten, or six to eleven.
This has been my life’s work since I was fourteen. It’s fun. It’s not as much fun as it used to be, but it’s still fun. Everything is so expensive. Like our Water Game is a hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Now, at three dollars a customer, you got to get a lot of customers.
Well, I started out in the novelty business when I was fourteen. We always got a week off of school, so I worked that week, and it’s what I know, what I wanted to do, and that’s what I’ve done ever since. Now I have six stands with games at the Fair.
When I was starting out, I would take the bus into New York City and go pick up novelties, and then I worked for WT Grant Company as a restaurant manager, but I’ve always done the Bloomsburg Fair. There was a lot of money to be made in the fair business, so I got into the game business in the 1970s. But I started this in1965.
I’ve been there for at least forty-five years. Then I started getting more games, and I got a few more locations, and just did games. Water games, mostly.
When you say “novelties,” you mean you were selling things?
Yeah, end-plates and toys and stuff like that. And that’s how it got started. I now have twenty game stands, but I only put seven or eight at the Fair. I also work at Centre Hall and Honesdale, and other fairs. This is my primary business from May to December.
Has it changed since you started doing this?
We’re not making as much money. It hasn’t been good. We may be grossing a lot more, but we’re netting a lot less, with the cost of merchandise going up dramatically this year. And fuel is terrible. It’s been slowing down. The slow-down is happening because of malls and movie-theatres. It’s just not what it use to be. We have a good group of guys at the Fair now, so that may improve things. For example, Bill Barrett is probably one of the best guys there. He’s real aggressive, and gets things done, and he’s good at that. We’ve seen a lot of change, and it’s all been for the better.
The food is reasonably priced because the Fair doesn’t overcharge the concessionaires. It’s the only fair you can go to and buy a two dollar and fifty cent hot sausage. You go to any other fair it’s six, seven dollars. If you’ve been around, you know what it costs. And we’re very cheap at our Fair. And that’s because of the Fair directors. They’ve kept the price down. That’s what’s made the Fair successful. I like the directors, now. They’re a lot better than a long time ago. It’s much better now. Everything is above board, and Todd Lehman will be a good president, and they’re a pretty good bunch of guys.
Do you have any stories of things that have happened in the past?
I was the first one to put fireworks at the Fair. It turned out to be one of the better things at the Fair. They’re not going to have them this year.
I liked the fireworks. It gave this Fair a little class. I just wanted the help the Fair out. I made money there. Not a lot of it, but the first year the fireworks were out in the field, and then the second year I got them in the infield. Then I donated the plot that sits in front of the fair office. I don’t mind helping the Fair. I wish everyone else would, because, we got to keep that thing going. Attendance has been down, and it’s turning into a nightmare. I don’t know what they can do to remedy that, but there may have been inflated figures before. Even so, the attendance is not there like it used to be. I can remember on a Saturday, the last Saturday of Fair, you could not walk around the Fairgrounds. You can now. It also depends on the weather. And last year it was a little too warm out there.
There are not a whole lot of stories. It’s just that it’s improved a lot. One thing that has changed is that in the 1960s they had the Freak Shows. There are still guys that will go around, but there’s no freak-shows left. They have the fat-guy, and there are still a few freaks living in Florida. But they’re all old, and don’t work anymore. The ones that are still around, they’re interesting people. You could write four chapters about them. There is one guy who is in his seventies. He could tell you stories for hours. Of the guys you have Greg Smith Daniels and Mule-Face Woman, and others. You know, all those real neat freaks. They come, every other year, to the fairs. I think they’ll be at the Fair this year. You could talk to them before the fair this year. Worthall, he’s been in the business fifty years. He knew every freak. He had I don’t know how many freak shows, but you could write a whole chapter on him, easily. He’s the only guy left with bona fide freak-shows. There use to be fifty of them, maybe even a hundred. Now there’s none, except for him. He’s the only one left.
Also, no more girl shows, of course. And all the games are legitimate now, and the Bloomsburg Fair makes sure of that, especially with Bill Barratt. Probably twenty, thirty years ago it was not the case. You had to spend a lot of money to win. If you ever come to any of my games, they’re always crowded, because they know they’re always going to win. The Pennsylvania State Showman’s Association, we have rules and regulations now, and everything is above-board. I know, that’s the case in this part of the country, but in the western part Pennsylvania it’s a different story. They’re still ripping them off, and not on this side. They won’t put up with it. State Police closed a couple of games down at York and Bloomsburg, but never me. The State Police know we’re running above-board. Another local person who does games is Huey Gross. He’s another guy you would want to talk to. His grandfather had a French-fry business, Gross French-Fries. He’s been at the Fair sixty-five years. Now the grandson took it over. They’re in between the Industrial Building and one other building.
You need to talk to Bill Barratt. He’s Head-of-Security. He’s the one who got things rolling at the Fair. You will not find a better man. I have so much respect for him. He gets things done. He doesn’t talk about it; he get things done. He can tell you some stories. And he makes sure that everything is straight down at the Fair. Not just the games, but everything.
How many people have worked for you?
At the Fair, probably twenty people work for me. They’re people who come back year after year. Most of them are local, but I have some that are from Harrisburg. They get paid well, and they want to work.
The people we get also reflects the kind of fair we are. Bloomsburg is pretty much a family fair. Of all the fairs I go to, this is probably the best. They don’t allow beer. There’s nothing worse than a fair with beer because later on, they’re drunk. Fairs like Centre Hall have a different focus. Center Hall is a very unique fair. There’s no fair like it in the country. That fair starts on a Friday, and ends on the Thursday before Labor Day. If you want to see a fair, that one is totally different. They have twelve hundred tents that concessionaires live in, and they have about three thousand customer-campers. It’s just amazing. Just the concessionaires live in the tents in the infield and they keep getting more and more. Out in the parking lot, is where the customer- camping is, and Barratt got plumbing and electric out there, and they’re making money. It is twenty dollars a day to park there, and they keep getting more and more campers. They’ve had more than they’ve ever had out there, probably, three, four, five hundred, customers camping.
I also do Honesdale. A nice little fair. No booze. Hughesville. Another fair near Pheonixville-- It’s a fireman’s fair.
Right now we’re in New Bloomfield. We work carnivals during the spring and summer. For carnivals we just work nights from six to ten, or six to eleven.
This has been my life’s work since I was fourteen. It’s fun. It’s not as much fun as it used to be, but it’s still fun. Everything is so expensive. Like our Water Game is a hundred and seventy thousand dollars. Now, at three dollars a customer, you got to get a lot of customers.