| AUGUST 22, 2011 -- For the early 20th century resident, the Granby Fair was the biggest thrill of the year. Each mid-September, schools were closed for the two-day event. Farm chores were set aside as families packed huge picnic lunches and headed for the fairgrounds.
It started back in 1895 when the Granby Agricultural Society sold shares of stock and purchased 23 acres on West Granby Road for a fairground. The beautiful hayfield across from the new Granby Rovers parking lot was the location. It eventually grew to include a bandstand, two grandstands and a baseball field, which was in the middle of a half-mile racetrack!
The 1890s were hard times for many rural communities in America. The farmers and business men of Granby were resilient and weathered these times better than most. One explanation for this resilience was the revival of traditional communal values. The Granby Creamery was in operation, the Grange had been revived and the Granby Fair was paying handsome prizes. The fair was just another example of how the town could pull together to make life better for all who lived there.
A grandstand was built for the judges and officials and opposite it a grandstand for the crowd. The spectators could stand in the open field, or sit in the covered grandstand for fifty cents a person.
The turn of the century brought two great new food items which were very popular at the fair, but which mothers tended to dread: the ice cream cone and the hot dog. Acceptable choices might include a locally grown baked potato, served with thick slices of Granby-made butter and washed down with good old apple juice or a root beer.
It was also a truly educational project, with its exhibits and contests, but as entertainment, the sulky racing was one of the main attractions, and by the turn of the century the fair was offering a $300 purse for the winners! The sulkies raced a half-mile down the track, finishing at the grandstand as the crowds roared and the Granby Brass Band played mightily.
Another interest was the weight-pulling contest by yokes of oxen and teams of draft horses. Exhibits and prizes covered every item of interest to farmers and their families including; vegetables, fruits, needlework, pies, cakes, bread, chickens, turkeys, and geese.
The exhibitors began to arrive at dawn to obtain the most favorable locations for their displays, for first prize money went as high as $2.00! The fame that ensued was also terrific.
All morning, a flurry of business; at noon, a quiet, as the groups settled down at the huge picnic tables for gargantuan feasts and then back to the jostling crowds for the horse racing, obstacles races, and baseball games.
One year, as an extra added feature was to be added, a 15-foot-high, hot air balloon would ascend to 500 feet over the baseball diamond in the center of the fairgrounds. A fire was started not to far from the bandstand to fill up the huge balloon and as it rose slowing a hush fell over the 23 acres as the crowd was in awe of this site. Slowly it rose to 100 - 300 - 500 feet before it suddenly collapsed in mid-air and crashed down on top of the bandstand. The musicians escaped, but their instruments and chairs were knocked about. It was a big day of excitement for the town of Granby.
The Granby Agricultural Fair continued until 1934 when a scaled-down version was moved to the Town Hall (today's Grange Hall across from the First Church). So for almost 40 years, the Fair in Granby was the only town fair in Hartford County.
The Grange fair continues still to this day, but the old days of the blaring brass bands, baseball games, horseshoe-pitching, log sawing, oxen pulls and the roar of the crowds as the sulkies made their final turn toward the finish line, are long gone.
This year the Grange Fair will be held on Sept. 10. Check it out! |
