Hurley House Fine Books

Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All

When we were in Springfield, IL recently, I read the third essay in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,* “Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All.” This was great: I was in Springfield, and it was (sort of) about Springfield!

Springfield is the home of the Illinois State Fair, about which this essay was written. When I was old enough to ride my bike to the fair, and young enough to still be eligible for free admission, I was a Fair regular. I’d say that was for about three years. Vicki — and later Jenny — and I would ride our bikes up there every day.

Of course the last Sunday was our favorite day of the Fair, really,1 because for five dollars, you could get a wristband that allowed you free, repeated access to all the rides in Happy Hollow. Oh yeah! How many revolutions on The — what was it called? — Himalaya2 would we turn that day?

When we weren’t riding rides3, we’d stand for too-long periods listening to the carney in the dunk tank insult passers-by, hoping to avoid any of those insults being hurled our way. One year, the carney was pretty funny… at least to a couple of giggling 15-year-old girls, he was. He kept calling this audience member “Pewey Lewis.” We couldn’t get enough of that.

We never spent much time at the livestock venues. We might stop by to look at the horses or sit in the coliseum for a few minutes and watch a horse show. Between the smells and the oppressive heat, buildings housing animals weren’t really the most pleasant places to be.

You had to get a corn dog and lemon shake-up4. And Tom Thumb donuts. And Spiess fries. And an Italian or Polish sausage with peppers, onions, and cheese. Or a Philly cheese-steak. Basically, you gorged yourself on pretty inexpensive fried goods, mostly. And an elephant ear or funnel cake (fried and fried). DFW has some fun remarks about some of the edibles.

We’d go through the Expo and Grandstand buildings on the hunt for gew-gaws. It was my tradition every year to get myself a one- or two-dollar birthstone ring. Why was I obsessed with that?

There was also a ton of free stuff to be procured — pencils and rulers and bumper stickers and buttons and magnets… and… and… and… — in tents devoted to local politicians, farmers’ groups, seed companies, safety organizations, unions, mega-corporations, you name it.

DFW wrote about his visit to the ISF in 1993. I bet Patrick and I were there; I know we went at least once or twice in our early dating years. We might have seen him and not known it!

The last time I went to the ISF was probably something like three or maybe four years ago5. Patrick and I were going to be in Springfield visiting family anyway, and we thought, “What the heck! Let’s go for old time’s sake.” Happy Hollow wasn’t there anymore.6 What was down there? I think some livestock stuff, maybe. The “big-kid” rides were all where I think the big farm equipment used to be. And they just called it something like “Carnival Midway.” Or something.

In my fair-going heyday, the only thing you could get “on a stick” was a corn dog. Not so, the last time I went. Patrick and I saw all manner of stick-impaled edibles.

Egg on a Stick7

There was even a stand completely devoted to stick-borne foods: pizza, twinkies, deep-fried cheese, sandwiches… Am I remembering correctly? Was everything at that stand also deepfried?? I would love to know what DFW would have written about that!

OK, this is long.

I don’t need to tell you all about the Illinois State Fair. You can read DFW’s essay and get a really, really, really good idea about the whole experience. I mean, I could very vividly picture practically every single thing he wrote about. And not just because his writing makes you do that anyway, but because I’d seen the very same things.

Or you can go to the Fair and see for yourself. If you’re not in Illinois, I’m sure many State Fairs in flyover land are very comparable: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio…

But seriously. Do read DFW’s essay; it’s terrific!

This is the fourth post in a series.

1 Back in a time before I would get motion sickness even thinking about something moving… with me in it… let alone, fast and in a circular motion.

2 Or something like that. This was a ride that featured a set of tram cars on a circular track. Circling. Circling. Circling. Practically endlessly, when the operator2a liked the group riding. At least once per ride, the operator would put the whole thing in reverse for extra thrills.

2a Who was also the DJ.2a1

2a1 This ride featured extra-super-ear-drum-blasting classic rock.2a1a Sometimes a litte contemporary Metal, like Ratt or Mötley Crüe.

2a1a This was Springfield, IL, after all. During the 80s. I think the theme song for our fair city was something like “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Never really did understand that.

3 We weren’t kids whose parents gave them big allowances. (I usually saved up all of my birthday money every year, just so I could spend it at the fair.) We usually reserved ride riding for the bargain day.

4 I always visited the Miller4a stand for these.


4a Not the beer. The family. From Beardstown, IL, which is where my grandparents lived. I think we somehow knew the family, but I never recognized anyone working at the stand. Still, for some reason, I remained loyal to that stand.

Miller Stand

5 Wow. Really, it was almost six years ago! I found this out when I was looking for pictures we took then. I must really have no concept at all of time.

6 A small bit of research turns up info that it’s to return to its original location (at least what I know as the original location) this year.

7 We were vegan at the time, so we didn’t buy this. We just asked if they’d let us take a picture of it.