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Sept. 27, 2010
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
WEST SPRINGFIELD -- The most common complaint I hear about the Big E is that it is the same every year.
I've never really understood that because of two factors: the first is what other folks might see as repetition I see as tradition and the second is there is always plenty of new things.
At least I usually find enough new stuff to make the fair a different experience each year.
Personally, I like the traditions I've created for myself. Frequent fairgoers to the Big E all do that.
I like finding a chocolate-covered frozen banana on a stick make mine with nuts, please. I eat one a year at the Big E. Also I tend to consume one corn dog a year, as well also at the Big E.
It must be something about food on a stick.
I enjoy gawking at the giant pumpkins at the Farmarama Building and looking over the livestock at the Mallory Building. I can't help it. You can take the boy off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy.
I start my trip at the state buildings and work my way from New Hampshire to Rhode Island. I always have to buy the sharpest Vermont cheddar I can find.
It was in the state buildings I started spotting things I've not seen before.
In the New Hampshire building Larry Gardenour of LG Concepts from Merrimack, N.H., was demonstrating his LG-Bagz-It, a fabric-sided device on wheels that could take the place of a wheelbarrow for many jobs around the yard.
The Bagz-It comes in three sizes and was developed for people who have bad backs, he said.
Gardenour has been manufacturing his product for over seven years and has been waiting seven years to get into the New Hampshire Building. He noted there is quite a waiting list.
The Vermont Highland Cattle Company was also waiting it get into the Vermont Building, according to Courtney Currier-Holloway. The company had been in a booth outside the Vermont Building but finally landed an interior spot where they are selling beef jerky made from the longhaired cattle originally from Scotland.
The Vermont Flannel Company usually presents an assortment of jackets, shirts, sleepwear and lounging pants all made from flannel, but this year it is presenting a new item: a flannel thong.
"The Vong" comes either separately or in a "Redneck Romance Kit." It comes in one size described as "fitting most red necks."
The Massachusetts Building features several real values. The Pittsfield Rye Company bakery is offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal on its fresh baked bread, while the lobster roll concession is offering Massachusetts lobsters in a hot dog bun $1 cheaper than their counterparts in Maine.
Falling out of the new category and temporarily back into the traditional was the musical act performing in the outdoor arena in the center of the fairgrounds. Music at the Big E falls into two basic categories: acts that are big now and acts that have endured. Frankly, I find the veteran performers more interesting and as I walked by Mark Lindsay, who gained fame as the lead singer for Paul Revere and the Raiders, was working up a standing room only crowd.
Introducing his smash hit "Indian Reservation," he said, with a laugh, it was the best selling record in the history of CBS records "until that little twerp Michael Jackson came along."
The Better Living Center was chock full of new items this year. Sure it housed the vendors with stovetop grills, devices that allowed the easier application of masking tape for painting and the now ubiquitous Shamwows.
While, I couldn't find the Ginsu knives they actually lived up to the hype and all are still sharp -- I did find "My Best Fish Friend," a box that includes a gold fish bowl and a plastic bag with fish eggs that hatch when placed in water -- almost instant pets for $20.
Around the corner was a booth selling something delightfully low tech, but highly efficient, the Whirley Pop corn popper. The pitchman explained popcorn and oil are put in the corn popper, which is heated on a kitchen stove. Three minutes of turning the crank produces popcorn that tastes like it came from a movie theater. Although the corn popper has been on the market for over 50 years, it was making its Big E debut this year.
Scott and Cheryl Sarvis are offering an interesting impulse item: hair. The couple is new to the Big E this year, but not to fairs and conventions, and they sell hair extensions. Standing in front of a large wall of artificial locks, Scott said the extensions range in price from $20 to $100 and can be styled into place in two minutes.
Springfield resident Joan Petrick was also at the Big E with her invention, the E-Z Bagger Barrel. Petrick developed the new style of barrel because of her own problems with back pain. The barrel allows a person to lift it from around an interior bag instead of attempting to lift a full bag of leaves or garbage out of a barrel.
She said the response to her product has been "unbelievable."
"It feels so great because people say it's a great product,' she said.
Connections to Western Massachusetts pop up at the Big E at some of the most unexpected places. In the Young Building, there is a traveling exhibit from the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum from Nashville, Tenn. The museum honors musicians from across the spectrum and was dealt two blows this year the first was having their building taken by the city of Nashville through eminent domain and the second was having the collection of one-of-a-kind musical instruments damaged in the floods in May.
This museum has exhibits that include Jimmi Hendrix's 1967 Fender Stratocaster guitar, for example.
Currently, the museum is raising funds to help restore the water-damaged instruments and in the center of the display is a drum kit that is in need of repair. This sparkle blue Ludwig drum setwas played by legendary drummer Hal Blaine. You may not know his name but you've heard his work. Those were his drums on the Beach Boy's "I Get Around," "Good Vibrations" and "Help Me Rhonda." He worked with artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel and Frank Sinatra.
Blaine is a Holyoke native who was born Harold Belsky in 1929.
This is what I love about the Big E where else could I find out a chapter of Western Massachusetts history I didn't know about and do it while enjoying eating something on a stick?
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