Back in the olden days, I recall, the Iselin Fair was THE BEST fair around. I lived on Benjamin Avenue, near Merrill Park, and I remember when people parked all the way past my house, and walked blocks and blocks to get to the fairgrounds on Green Street.
Everyone has their own childhood memories, and Brian captured a lot of great memories for those of us who are of “a certain age.” I wonder what kind of memories the kids of today will have?
I’m going to reprint his article, a little every day until the Fair starts on Monday. So here’s Part 1:
Growing up with the Iselin Fair by Brian Lanigan
It’s getting to be that time of year again. Monday, July 11, kicks off another week of the Iselin Fair. For anyone who grew up in Iselin, the week of the Fair was anticipated and enjoyed by all. Parents brought their most valuable possessions, their children, once a year to the sacred ground on the corner of Green Street and Cooper Avenue. There was food, fun, rides, games, and entertainment on the stage. Nightly and weekly 50-50's and the chance to win a new car were available to all. Generation after generation continued to bring their children to the fair, even if they no longer lived in Iselin any more. The observations and points of view you are hopefully about to read are from a person who was born in the 60's and grew up in Iselin, New Jersey. Your personal experiences growing up with the Fair may have differed from mine, but I am sure many of you can draw quite a few parallels.
Everyone knew the vacant lot in the center of town as “the fair grounds”... a small piece of God’s good earth that was spared from suburban sprawl for the purposes of fun and happiness. It lay dormant all year just waiting for our week-long summer time party. The thought of “the fair grounds” not being there someday was unimaginable. With God, the church, and the good people of Iselin watching, no-one would dare defile our sacred oasis. Many generations volunteered their time, labor, and spent their hard earned money to support the fair and the church. Even the devil himself turned a blind eye to all the happiness and joy this land gave to our community. Maybe he took that week off, or more likely he was just biding his time.
From my earliest memories, parking in the neighborhood behind Flips or in the K of C lot was standard procedure. This was a tradition. This tradition continued into adulthood until the fair moved. Walking between Flips and the firehouse, seeing the Ferris wheel to the left and the merry go round to the right, was enough to get any child’s heart pumping. In later years, there would be two Ferris wheels side by side. The smell of the food along with the sound the bullet chain would make the hair on my arms stand up. One of my earliest Fair memories is the man who operated the merry go round in the 60's. He was an older man with missing teeth, covered in tattoos, and dressed like a character from the movie “The Wild Bunch”. In any other situation, our mothers’ would have crossed the street if they saw this guy coming. But here at the fair, he was taking children by the hand and lifting them onto horses as gently as could be. His hand firmly on the ride controls, he kept a watchful eye on all of us. At the fair, we were all immune to harm, Father Wilus wouldn’t have it any other way.
Stay tuned for Part 2, tomorrow!
The thing I like best about the Fair was that crispy pizz and that sauce on it and lit bit of sprinkled cheese. Walking home that evening eating it on the way home.! Dolores
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Iselin, born in 1954 and by my mid teens, that was our summer. First there was the 4th of July at Merrill Park, what a blast that was with the fireworks show the finale of the 4th. Then a week or two later, was the Iselin Fair. The Bullet,tilt o whirl,scrambler, the spider. And then the beer, the cigarette tent, where you had to land a ball on a certain color jar.
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