The biggest annual fall festival in New England is the Eastern States Exposition, locally known as The Big E. Karen and I both have been attending the fair since we were kids. I remember getting to sit on tractors when it was mainly an agricultural fair. The famous buildings along the Avenue of the States used to feature exhibits promoting what each state was most famous for. The New Hampshire building once had a giant ski slope at its center. The Massachusetts building had a big pond where you could fish. Over the decades, the fair evolved into essentially a giant craft fair/flea market. There were still agricultural exhibits along with homages to the past like the Grange Building. But the bulk of the fairgrounds more closely resembled an Arab market with aisle after aisle of vendors selling everything imaginable: mattresses, sheds, perfume, sweaters, hot tubs, scooters ... it was capitalism on overload. But the main reason Karen and I went every year was for the food. It was endless. There was the typical fair food like fried dough, mozzarella sticks, Philly cheesesteaks (with the accompanying heavenly aroma of grilled peppers and onions) and hot dogs. But there were innumerable other more exotic offerings like our favorite smoked salmon on a stick, veggie crepes and falafels, along with the bizarre "you-won't-find-this-anywhere-else" foods such as the Flatliner Burger or the Craz-E Burger (a loaded cheeseburg sandwiched between two glazed donuts). And new this season was a fried chicken milkshake. Until last year, Karen and I could attend the fair only at night or on weekends, which were always crowded. When we both retired, we were able to buy the fair's "season pass", good for all 17 days of the fair. Last year it was $40 if purchased in advance, which was a decent deal. The price went up this year to $50. But since we planned to go there several times, it was still worth it. If we had gotten a ticket for just one day, we'd feel pressured to make the most of it and would end up exhausted. With the pass, we could go for just a few hours until we felt like we'd had enough, and then return a few days later. The first day of the fair saw beautiful sunny and mild weather. We headed out to West Springfield about 9:30. In that city, residents would clear out their yards for the run of the fair and charge money to park. That gave them a nice supplemental income. The amount they charge varied wildly and depended on how far they were from the fairgrounds, what the weather was like and how late it was in the day. In the past, $5 for the day was a reasonable charge. But now some places close to the fairgrounds were charging $30, double the cost of admission. We didn't mind a little walking, and so we would drive down Norman Street and park at one of the many lots available there. The first day was not bargain: even the most distant lots started at $15. We picked one less than a block from the fairgrounds and walked over. The first thing I noticed as we passed through the entrance gates was the new giant Ferris wheel at the other end of the grounds. It was the largest touring wheel in the U.S., 150 feet in diameter. It also cost $10.50 per person to ride. This would be a recurring theme at the fair. The cost of everything had skyrocketed. That meant we had to carefully pick and choose what we wanted to buy. On food alone, we could have easily spent $100 in a few hours. The free samples that vendors used to give out when I was a kid were a thing of the distant past, save for one little stand that was giving out kiwis. Most food vendors were charging prices that we would expect to pay at upscale restaurants, not at a food truck. We took a right at the entrance plaza and headed for the state buildings. We passed the "Court of Honor" stage, a giant tent that featured musical acts throughout the day. In front of it was a large carving of an acoustic guitar emerging from the trunk of a tree. It was a popular photo spot. Nearby were king and queen sculptures with holes in which you could stick your face. Karen and I were looking at them and someone offered to take our picture. From there we headed down through the row of vendor trucks that lined the midway. There were relatively few people walking about. In a way that was really refreshing, since so often at the fair we were elbow-to-elbow with people. But in another way, I wondered if it was an ominous sign that people were getting tired of the fair or just didn't have the money to attend. The setup of the Avenue of the States always puzzled me. From west to east, the order of the buildings was New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and lastly Rhode Island. I wondered if they drew lots during the planning. The order seemed so random. But as we usually did, we started in New Hampshire and progressed eastward. One thing that I noticed immediately when we walked in the building was how much more spacious it was. The state buildings were always the most congested at the fair. On crowded days, you were basically caught in a river of people and simply progressed from the entrance to the exit without ever being able to access any of the vendors. But this season, it appeared they cut the number of vendors in half and widened the aisles so that twice as many people could flow through. It was a really welcomed change. We passed through the New Hampshire and Connecticut buildings. There was a lot that had changed, mostly in where long-time vendors had been relocated. Even a long series of tents on the outside of the Connecticut building was gone. It used to house a small concession that served some great hot cider and donuts. In the Vermont building, we stopped by one of our favorite concessions, The Skinny Pancake, which featured all manner of crepes made fresh to your order. Karen and I each got one of their Veggie Monster crepes, stuffed with cheese (of course), spinach, squash, carmelized onions and pesto. They cost $12 each, which I thought was reasonable for the amount of food. On lawns in back of the state buildings were dozens of picnic tables, which was another welcome change. Previously it had been a challenge to find anywhere to sit and eat. So we relaxed in the shade and ate our delicious crepes. When we were finished, we were both thirsty. We walked through the Massachusetts building and spotted a concession selling cups of cold cider for $1, probably the best deal at the fair. They also had a large cup for $4. So I got a large and Karen got a small. It was really good and quenched our thirst. We then walked through the Rhode Island building, which hadn't changed much, and headed back out onto the Avenue of the States. We headed down Commonwealth Avenue which was lined with more food vendors. Then we headed over to the enormous Better Living Center which was packed with row after row of merchandise vendors. Outside the building was a new food truck concession, Soulfully Vegan. It was refreshing to find someone selling veggie burgers. Previously, the only place to get a veggie burger was inside the Better Living Center at the Big E's own restaurant. The food truck wasn't offering just a normal veggie burger though; it was topped with peanut butter and jelly. It was also $16. So I passed on that. The BLC had the usual vendors we'd come to expect hawking jewelry, gutter guards, massage chairs, heat lamps, pianos, clocks ... nearly anything you could think of. We exited the building at the opposite end and were standing in front of the North American Midway. So we drifted briefly past the usual carny rides. Ride tickets cost $1.50 each, and most rides took at least 4 tickets. That Ferris wheel took seven! You could get an all-day wristband for $35, but the Ferris wheel wasn't included. One ride I hadn't seen at the fair before was a fiberglass double-decker carousel that featured a menagerie of unsual figures including a hummingbird and a triceratops. We headed into the nearby International Building, which was like a mini BLC. We had gotten some nice wind sculptures there in the past, but that vendor hadn't returned. We walked out of that building and then strolled past the giant slide that had been at the fair since I was a kid, past the big circus tent and the camel rides, and headed west along Industrial Avenue. On the ride was the largest tent at the fair, a massive 3-story structure that housed a hot tub vendor. And we also passed by beer concessions. Lots of them. Too many to count. They were everywhere. And this year the Big E was pushing local craft beers that had small tents set up all over the place featuring blueberry beer, honey beer ... all seemed to be trying to follow the Big E tradition of "you've-never-seen-this-before". But one thing that I noticed because of its absence were the weird animal exhibits: the World's Largest Pig, the World's Smallest Horse, etc.... Those use to be spread throughout the fair, but this year there wasn't a single one. By then we had been walking around for two and a half hours. So we called it a day and headed back home. The next day my friend Eddie picked me up. He lived out in Worcester and wanted to go to the Big E with me. That was the only Saturday I was free, so we headed over at noon. We parked at the West Springfield Elementary School, which annual used their field for parking on weekends as a fundraiser for the school band. For many years they charged just $5. Now they had raised the charge to $15, which I thought was a bit excessive considering how far they were from the fairgrounds. We got a parking spot right next to the gate out onto Norman Street and started our hike down the street. All of the parking spots we passed started at $15 and went up from their. That made sense since it was the weekend and another beautiful day. We entered the gates and were greeted with a much larger crowd than the opening day. In fact, there were over 114,000 people at the fair that day, a new record. Something else new that greeted us: photographers. Like in amusement parks, the Big E had hired people to try to corral guests and take their photos (for a fee, of course). We decided to head for the state buildings before they got too congested. Along the way, we passed by the Court of Honor stage where the '80s band Modern English was playing to a pretty large crowd. Eddie was interested in trying salmon on a stick, so we headed over to the Maine building. He really enjoyed it. From there we headed to the southwest corner of the grounds and strolled through the midway, where the usual spin-and-barf rides were in full swing. There were also several dark rides and fun houses. Since they were all portable trailer-mounted versions, they were all pretty small. I had considered making a video of them, but there wasn't much to see. The facades were the best part of the rides; most of the dark rides were quick trips (less than a minute) in total darkness. And most of the walk-thru fun houses were geared at small children and as such were also really short. We headed east and ended up at the Mallary Building, one of the huge buildings that housed animals. It featured cattle judging throughout the day, along with sheep shearing. There was also the annual butter sculpture that got built up as the fair progressed. The sculptors were inside the refrigerated shed surrounded by plexiglass and were just starting to create recognizable shapes. The scuptures weren't solid butter. The skeleton was made out of chicken wire and a relatively thin skin of butter was applied to it. I stopped off at Tootsie's, the fried dough stand where last year I had gotten some incredibly delicious dough nuggets. I was glad to see that the price had remained the same: $8. But when they gave me my bag, I found that there were only six nuggets inside rather than eight like last year: a perfect example of "shrinkflation". We walked through the Better Living Center. I stopped at the lemonade stand there, which had the best fresh lemonade at the fair. We each got the large size, which came in a reusable plastic cup. It was $9, but if you brought the cup back to the stand each refill was just $4. So that was a pretty good deal. I ended up tossing my empty cup into a recycle bin, but Eddie saved his and did get a refill later. Eddie also stopped by the Delaney House tent and got the pulled pork popover he had tried last year. In total, we spent almost five hours wandering about and had an enjoyable time. The following Monday, Karen and I got to the fair right as it opened. What a contrast compared with Saturday! The fairgrounds looked deserted. We strolled the grounds, heading northeast along Industrial Drive and passing by Yankee Boy, the long-time concession that sold burgers made from alligators and other exotic animals. I wondered how many of those they actually sold. Karen settled for something a bit more pedestrian: some tater tots. Then we took a peek at the butter sculpture, which had made quite a bit of progress in the past day. We took a walk through Farm-a-Rama, where there were the typical county fair displays of quilts, photographs, landscaping and vegetable arrangements. There was one display that for some reason was nothing but a table and two chairs surrounded by a wood fence. That must have been the minimalist exhibit. From there we headed into the Better Living Center. I got myself a lemonade and this time held onto the cup. We passed by a vendor selling chamois. No one else was around and he convinced us to watch his demonstration. We had seen it before, but watched patiently as he demonstrated all its benefits. Then he made his pitch: for $21 we could get not one, not two, but three packets of chamois. That was actually a really good deal, since just one of those cloths sold in stores for about $10. So we bought them. Karen had brought a reusable grocery bag with her, so we had no problem carrying them around. After that I got some of my favorite macaroni and cheese from the nearby Granville Country Store trailer. We wandered around a bit more and then called it a day. On Wednesday, we were back. As usual we headed straight for the state buildings. I stopped in the Massachusetts building for another cup of their cider. Then we made our way through the other buildings, finally stopping for something to eat in the Rhode Island building. The Southeast Light Delights stand caught our eyes. They offered a grilled cheese on sourdough that looked tasty. Karen opted for their shrimp cocktail. She got four pieces of shrimp for $14. We sat at a picnic table outside to eat Fortunately, she said the shrimp were delicious. My grilled cheese was really good too. I'm not sure it was worth $8, but it was good. I stopped by the nearby Tootsie's stand again. They changed their prices: six dough nuggets now cost $10. That was absurdly expensive. That was closing in on $2 per nugget. So I called it quits on Tootsie's. We paid a visit to the Big E Museum, which we hadn't seen in a few years. Nothing much had changed there. But it did feature a nice history of the fair. There was also a dry-erase board that kept a running tally of fair attendance. The day Eddie and I were there saw 114,000 guests. No wonder it felt crowded. Next we walked through the nearby Storrowtown Village area. The Storrowtown Gazebo stage featured The Funny Waiter, an act with a guy spinning plates, for that week. The following weeks featured different acts including a hypnotist. When I was looking at the Big E schedule, I noticed that the fair held Catholic masses on Sunday mornings. Oddly, the masses took place in the circus tent. Maybe the bishop performed a high-wire act during communion. The non-denominational services were performed where you would expect them to be, in the Storrowtown church. After our stroll around Storrowtown, we walked back through the Better Living Center again and then headed home. Our next visit was on Friday, September 23. We started off the day by walking back through the Farm-a-Rama building. Ever since I can remember, one corner of that building has been occupied by the bright orange and white equipment of Hallamore, which had a stable of Clydesdales there, along with a wagon. The Clydesdales pulled the wagon in the Big E parade that happened periodically. Karen wanted to see the equestrian competitions that began at noon, so we walked over to the coliseum and got a seat in the massive arena. Karen had a hankering for potato chips, so I went to a nearby concession and got her a giant bowl full of them. We sat and watched the various different events. There were very few competitors and only a few spectators. The most competitors we saw was four at once, and some events only had one entrant. In the middle of the vast arena floor, which was covered in groomed dirt, was a nicely-landscaped gazebo. Inside the gazebo were two judges and an assistant who would watch the entrants and talk over a walkie-talkie to an announcer who was seated in a loft at the west end of the building. There was also a video technician who would switch between three different camera angles that were displayed on a jumbotron at the east end of the building. The announcer would call out "Walk" or "Trot" or "Reverse direction" and the judges would watch how well the entrants carried that out. One thing I thought was strange was that in two of the competitions, a spectator (presumably the horse's owner) would stand at the fence and whistle or shout at their horse, telling the rider what to do (in what sounded like an angry tone). In both those cases, those riders won the competition. After about an hour, I was getting hungry. So we headed over to the Granville Country Store trailer for some of their incredible macaroni and cheese. I ordered it with diced tomatoes, which I thought would be mixed in. But instead they were just sprinkled on the top like a garnish and didn't really add anything to the taste. But the mac & cheese was good. Karen next wanted to check out the Farmer's Market near the Mallary Complex, so we headed over to there. The market was a long barn-like structure that had wine tasting at the back (which always had a long line) and goods that you would typically find at a farmer's market, like cheeses, jams, baked items, etc. Karen looked around but didn't find anything that really appealed to her. I spotted a large white chocolate lobster that looked good, but not $30 good. I found a display of bagged nuts from the Rhode Island Nut Company. Their cinammon roasted pecans looked good, so I got a small bag for $8. They were unexpectedly delicious. Then we looked in on the progress of the butter sculpture, which was nearing completion. It was now obvious that the theme this year was weaving. Originally it looked to me like a basket filled with corn, but it was yarn. We headed into the Mallary building where a cattle-judging competition was in progress. Further into the building, a sheep-judging competition was underway, along with a sheep-shearing demonstration. Those drew quite a few spectators. From there we drifted through the North American Midway again, which was in full-swing. All the fun houses and dark rides were normally placed in an arc at the far south end of the midway. But Karen noticed a fun house that had been placed all by itself at the north central area, near the carousel. It was called Monkey Maze, I was surprised to see that it included a mirror maze. Because it was a trailer, the maze was pretty tiny. We watched kids make their way through it, and it wasn't much of a challenge. They started on the left side. Since there was very little depth to the maze, they simply snaked their way quickly to the exit at the right. There was no place for them to get lost. By that point we had been at the fair about three hours and decided to call it a day. The following Monday we purposely got to the fair a half-hour early. I wanted to make another walk-thru, and had planned to start at the state buildings. But when we arrived, there was already a line at the New Hampshire building that stretched down Hampden Avenue. I made the video anyway, just bypassing New Hampshire. Karen went to the Maine building to get her coveted lobster roll. I met her back there about an hour later. I was hungry and thirsty by then, so I got a vanilla milkshake from the Ben & Jerry's in the Vermont building and a falafel wrap from Noujaim's in the Connecticut building. Karen got some falafels and hummus and pita, and we sat at one of the many shaded picnic tables to eat. When I was filming the walk-thru, I realized that the big tent that housed the Big E's mardi gras floats for the parade were no longer there. Karen spotted them at the far southwest corner of a parking lot. They had been moved to make room for the "Big E Experience", an upcharge bar area that in all the time we were there had no takers. Karen also spotted the Roaming Train on the Avenue of the States. Basically, it was a John Deere tractor with a fiberglass shell that made it look vaguely like Thomas the Tank Engine. It pulled five wagons that held four people each. A ride cost $5, which I thought was reasonable. I also thought that it took you through the entire Big E fairgrounds. So we hopped aboard. It was quite a lengthy ride because the train had to wait for people to clear off the roads before it could progress. And it seemed like a lot of pedestrians just didn't care. The route was actually pretty short. It went up past Captain Nemo's on Commonwealth Avenue. Then it turned down the little side road by the New England buiding where we were stopped in our tracks by a parked ambulance. We it finally drove off, we then continued and turned left onto Hampden Avenue. We rode south to the side of the New Hampshire building where the driver then made us do a donut, which was amusing. We then took a left on State Street, progressed eastward to Park Avenue and then turned back onto the Avenue of the States. Even though we didn't go very far, it was a ten minute ride and was enjoyable. But to me it seems like they were missing an opportunity to show more of the fairgrounds to people who had never been there before. After we debarked, we went into the Better Living Center. I got another lemonade and then we headed back home. On September 30, we headed out for our final visit of the season. We arrived on Norman Street at about 12:00 and several of the parking lots were already filled. We found one for $20. The weather was brisk and for the first time I was wearing a jacket. There were already quite a few people at the fair. We headed for the Maine building and each got a salmon on a stick. We sat out at a picnic table to eat them. Then Karen wanted some tater tots, so we walked to the other end of the fairgrounds near the Mallary Complex. Along the way, Karen spotted the small trailer that housed the world's smallest horse. It's strange that it had been relegated to such an obscure location, all on its own. We didn't see any other exhibits like that. But we did spot a food truck that had been at the fair for the last few years, one whose offerings we never sampled but had been curious about. It sold rice balls in various combinations. So Karen ordered one with spinach and mozerrella. To our suprise, she was given a bowl with a deep-fried ball about four inches in diameter smothered in marinara sauce. She got two forks and we sat on a park bench to eat it. It was surprisingly good, with lots of flavor and thick stringy cheese. After polishing that off, we continued on to the tater tot concession. Karen got an order and we sat at a picnic table while she dined. When she had finished, she wanted to find a vendor from whom she had gotten a carrot peeler many years ago. So we walked over to the Better Living Center. While we were there, I decided to get another garlic grilled cheese sandwich from the Granville Country Store. Karen ordered one too, and we sat down at another picnic table to eat them. This time, they weren't as good. There wasn't as much garlic on them, nor much cheese. It was mostly grilled bread. When we finished, I went back into the Better Living Center to get a lemonade. We strolled among the vendors for a while, but Karen couldn't spot the one selling the carrot peelers. So we decided to head home after about two hours. There wasn't much more we needed to see, and there wasn't much more we could eat. Every summer we count the days until the start of the Big E. This year we visited than any other year. But it came at a cost. Parking was increasingly expensive. The food prices continued to skyrocket. It wasn't unusual to spend over $100 on food alone during a single visit. And yet, many of the vendors took cash only. I wasn't fond of carrying around that much cash. In the past, $50 would have been plenty of money. It seemed like if the fair kept going on its current trajectory, in a few years we were going to have to take out a second mortgage just to visit once. Perhaps we were in the minority; the fair was once again setting attendance records. So evidently other people weren't bothered by the prices. But I'm glad the fair comes around only once a year. Now we have twelve months to save up enough money to go again next year.

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