Sometimes a writer’s job is tough, with a deadline looming and little information available for articles. But sometimes, the problem is just the opposite — it’s one of having too much information.
That’s the case when asked to write about my memories of the Grange Fair. Having grown up in Centre Hall and lived there all of my 67 years, my stack of Grange Fair memories could fill a newspaper, but here are just a few from ‘back in the day.’
In my teens, I was in the Penns Valley High School Band, and we used to play concerts at the fair on the bandstand, which was located on a grassy area just below headquarters. It was always hot in those wool uniforms, but that uniform got me into the fair free a few times in those years. I walked from my house on Pennsylvania Avenue in full uniform, carrying my trumpet, and the man taking tickets smiled and waved me through the gate, saying something like, “You get in free today.” I felt important walking up the midway to the bandstand. The band also marched in the fair parades, and we got many cheers and applause from the crowd.
My friends and I rode our bicycles around town a lot when we were kids, and when fair workers were erecting tents, the gate on Hoffer Avenue was open, and we would ride into the grounds, waving at and sometimes stopping to talk to the workers. We bristled with anticipation, knowing that when the tents went up, the fair was finally coming. Thirty years later, my sons rode their bikes past the grounds and reported to me the progress of the fair preparation. They shared the same excitement that I had, and it made me feel like a kid again.
I built hundreds of model cars in my teen years, and I exhibited them in the hobby show at the fair. I won first place twice, but in 1967, when I went to remove my models on the last night of the fair, I discovered that someone had stolen my best model, a Mercury Cyclone funny car dragster with a scratch-build tubular chassis and an altered wheelbase body. I spent many hours building it, and I was quite disappointed that it was gone. That was the last time I exhibited any models, but I still have the faded blue ribbon as a reminder of that time.
Ballenger’s Hobby Shop in State College used to have a store in the commercial building in the 1960s. As a teenager, still too young to drive, it was great to have a source of models within walking distance of my home. Instead of spending my money on food and rides, I stocked up on models.
My family never had a tent at the fair, but my friend Warren “Butch” Wagner’s family had one in the North 6 block. Butch and I slept there a couple times, and of course, didn’t get much sleep, goofing around like teenage boys do. I remember we laughed ourselves silly when someone in a neighboring tent passed gas loudly. The neighbors were laughing, too.
In the 1960s, campers were allowed on the grounds on a first-come, first-served basis. Tuesday, before the fair began, was moving-in day for them, and I would see campers lined up on the berm of Pennsylvania Avenue through the length of the town and up the mountain early in the morning, waiting to get in to one of the 200 spaces. Tenters moved in the next day, and the lineup was repeated.
My mother worked at Luse’s IGA grocery store in Centre Hall, and she said that once, on tenters’ moving-in day, a man from out of the area stopped in, looking very concerned. He wondered if there had been a disaster, prompting a mass evacuation, since he saw furniture-laden trucks and trailers all over town. Mom said the store’s clerks all chuckled, and then explained the Grange Fair to him, and he left with a bewildered look.
For decades, the southern boundary of the fairgrounds was beside the feed mill on Hoffer Avenue, at the edge of the Ilgen farm. A chain link fence formed the boundary, with railroad tracks and open fields on the other side. Jack Garbrick, from Centre Air Park, used to take people on airplane rides during the fair, taking off and landing on the fields. Customers paid their fee and climbed over the fence on a large stepladder to board the planes. I remember watching Garbrick’s plane on landing approach, looking like it might clip the grain tower of the feed mill, but he never did. I took a ride with him once in about 1970, getting my first spectacular aerial view of the fair and my hometown.
When my sons became old enough, we went on rides together at the fair, with the Tilt-A-Whirl being our favorite. We laughed and screamed as the ride spun us around frantically. Two years ago, the boys, in their 30s and me in my 60s, rode the ride together again, and suddenly, we all became 10-year-olds, once again laughing and screaming the whole time.
In 1984, the 100-acre Ilgen farm was purchased, which nearly doubled the size of the fairgrounds. An outdoor horse arena was constructed, as was a tractor pull area and the Homan Lane gate off Route 45. In 2011, a 150-foot by 300-foot covered horse arena was built on the grounds, and I met Gov. Tom Corbett when he attended the opening of the arena.
The Grange Fair is deeply embedded in central Pennsylvania culture and history. It serves as a seasonal rite of passage and as a respite from a sometimes harsh and ever-changing world. Every year, fairgoers gather a pack of memories of good times and reassurance that some things stay pretty much the same, sometimes even for 142 years.
