Sand and butter hold true for sculptures

The New York State Fair folks moved the sand sculpture back to the Center of Progress for 2019 after a year at the Exposition Center. It looked good back in the center of its old home. Get the monkeys, my dear wife Karen urged. Walking the aisles, I noticed the sculpture had different themes on…

State Police car timeline provides memories

Having lived in New York State all but six years of my life, I had memories of many but not all of the cars in the New York State Police exhibit. Not that purple one, wise guys. I told my dear wife Karen that during a certain era, the color pattern of the cars brought…

But he forgot the grand piano

The big sound came from the guy in the center of the knot of fair-goers on the midway. The man in the one-man band really did know how to rock out. Bandaloni is his name, and he can really play guitar, drums and everything he carries on that rig of his. His singing voice made…

We find the fried dough and way more

The new layouts the New York State Fair folks come up with every year do make the walking navigation easier. No worries. We managed to find Pizza Villa in its new spot. Not pizza. Stretch fried dough at its best. We were impressed that the stand owners used the term exactly as they do in…

We must get our goat time in

The goat building draws in my dear wife Karen and I every year. How can we not adore these animals once described as confused dogs by my friend and former fair rep Fred Pierce? Don’t worry. The predicament above was solved when the goat owner stood the little guy up on hind legs so his…

The bus trip still seems best

Yes, we did go to the New York State Fair this year. (I’m way behind because of all those Texas photographs and nuggets of family adventure I was determined to share first.) Anyway. When my dear wife Karen drove down Long Branch road planning to park in the usual temporary Centro lot to take the…

The large and small of it for Centro

My dear wife Karen and I were waiting for a ride on a Centro bus at the New York State Fair when I spotted a Centro car parked a few dozen feet behind its larger cousin. The comparison between the two hit me, as, well, as somewhat humorous. But maybe it was just me.

Pentatonix proves to be very, very popular

When I bought our $20 lawn tickets to see Pentatonix at the Lakeview Amphitheater a few months ago, I figured we’d use our annual trick of trading up to pavilion seats the night of the show. So my dear wife Karen and I left our bag chairs home when we took the Centro bus from…

One way or another, we wanted to see Blondie

My dear wife Karen and I spent enough hours sitting on the benches waiting for bands to start at Chevy Court, back in the years I reviewed music for the big daily. So nowadays we walk around the New York State Fair beforehand and then catch songs from the bands we cherish by making our…