A love affair with the fair
The photo taken at The Great Danbury State Fair in 1981, its final season, by Paul Gassner of Danbury. Photo: Contributed Photo / CT Robert Miller, Staff WriterFROM: The Danbury News Times
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
DANBURY -- There were trollies in Danbury once. One October in the early 1930s, Millie Godfrey got on a trolley with her mother and rode it to Backus Avenue.
And there, rising in front of her, was the gate to wonderland: The Great Danbury State Fair.
"As old as I am, I can remember when I was 6 years old," Godfrey, 83, said. "I can remember the trolley taking us right to Backus Avenue. I can remember my mother packing our lunch in a shoe box. I can remember sitting in the Big Top, eating lunch with her."
Throughout western Connecticut, the memories of the fair -- The Great Danbury State Fair -- remain strong and the affection undiluted. It was 30 years ago this month when the fair opened for its final 10-day run, then closed and auctioned off its holdings.
Its steam locomotive and sound system were auctioned. So were its Model Ts and tramcars, its antique tools and high-wheeled bicycles, its grandstand and Big Top, and the more than 100 huge figures the fair's last owner, John W. Leahy, had amassed over the years -- cowboys and Indians, pigs and pixies, Robin Hood and Uncle Sam among them.
The fair would be replaced with a year-round extravaganza, the Danbury Fair mall, which opened in 1986. It's now the second-largest mall in the state and the fifth-largest in New England. Cars fill its parking lots whatever the month.Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/A-love-affair-with-the-fair-2201896.php#ixzz1ZzSxkE9J
And there, rising in front of her, was the gate to wonderland: The Great Danbury State Fair.
"As old as I am, I can remember when I was 6 years old," Godfrey, 83, said. "I can remember the trolley taking us right to Backus Avenue. I can remember my mother packing our lunch in a shoe box. I can remember sitting in the Big Top, eating lunch with her."
Throughout western Connecticut, the memories of the fair -- The Great Danbury State Fair -- remain strong and the affection undiluted. It was 30 years ago this month when the fair opened for its final 10-day run, then closed and auctioned off its holdings.
Its steam locomotive and sound system were auctioned. So were its Model Ts and tramcars, its antique tools and high-wheeled bicycles, its grandstand and Big Top, and the more than 100 huge figures the fair's last owner, John W. Leahy, had amassed over the years -- cowboys and Indians, pigs and pixies, Robin Hood and Uncle Sam among them.
The fair would be replaced with a year-round extravaganza, the Danbury Fair mall, which opened in 1986. It's now the second-largest mall in the state and the fifth-largest in New England. Cars fill its parking lots whatever the month.Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/A-love-affair-with-the-fair-2201896.php#ixzz1ZzSxkE9J
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