Bloomsburg Fair
Bloomsburg, PA (2025)
It's that time of year again...
One of the games that I've try to hit up every year is I Got It. My grandmother used to like this game when I came here with my grandparents when I was a kid because it gave her an opportunity to sit down for a little while. It's also a pretty good place to spend some time if it starts raining.
The game works like this: You sit down at counter that has a reservoir of little red rubber balls across from a box that has a grid at its base. When a game begins, a man on a microphone tells everyone to toss in Ball #1. Then, after about twenty seconds or so, he'll tell everyone to toss in Ball #2, and so on. The game continues until someone lands five balls in a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal line in their grid.
When someone gets five balls in a row, they shout "I Got It" and a staff members comes over to make sure that you really won. If you win at the same time as one or more other players, each of the winners gets tickets for three free games of I Got It. I'd guess that roughly half of the games end with multiple winners. If you're the only winner, you get a coupon that you can exchange at the prize counter. You can get some prizes for just a single coupon, but the more expensive items require two or more coupons.
I'm not especially good at this game, but Angie is and she was a solo winner for one of the games.
The object of this game is to toss dimes an area that has several rotating displays filled with cups, saucers, and other random things that are on display with shot glasses and targets. If your dime lands in a shot glass or on one of the targets, you win the item that corresponds with the target that you've hit. I've won a few things here over the years, including a juice glass that I still use to this day, but neither of us had any luck this year.
We had to pass on Uncle Nick's Candy Game this year for reasons that will become clear in a moment.
Another one of our annual traditions at the Fair is to pick up Christmas ornaments. We got a few this year, including this wooden alien from S.A.W. Family Creations, and our yearly penguin ornament from The Little Christmas Shop.
I always get a kick out of seeing the different toys that vendors have for sale and that games have made available as prizes. Where else can you get a switchblade comb, a samurai sword, a sniper rifle, AND a box of farts?
The pin vendor that we discovered last year was back and we had fun looking through them and picking out our favorites.
My experience at the Fair has been a little different this year. I've been really focused on losing weight and getting back into shape this year. It's been going very well so far. I started out the year at 297 pounds and I weigh 214 pounds today.
I didn't want sabotage myself by eating with reckless abandon at the Fair no matter how many things I saw that I wanted to try. For example, in any other year, I absolutely would have tried the Dixie Dog from the Horr's Hot Dogs stand. It's a bacon wrapped hot dog that has been stuffed in a pickle, then deep fried in batter before being topped with a peanut butter sauce and sprinkled with tortilla crumbles.
Still, a boy's gotta eat, and there was no way I was passing up on the Bacon Pickle Dog. It's not something I'd recommend trying to eat while you're walking around, but thankfully this stand had tables, so I was able to eat it without wearing it.
Speaking of pickles, I had to pick up some from Peter Peppers PA Pickles stand since they were so good last year. They're the perfect snack for weight loss, and they're especially perfect for me since I love pickles!
I also had Tony's Special from the Tony's Steaks truck. This is a cheesesteak topped with mushrooms, peppers, fried onions, pepperoni, sauce, and provolone cheese. It was absolutely delicious, especially for a guy who hasn't had a cheesesteak in at least six months.
Of course, we had to have our apple cider floats next to the fountain in the Horticultural Building. This has been a tradition for Angie and I since we first came to the Fair together in 2006, and a scoop of ice cream in a cup of apple cider isn't enough of a speed bump to my weight loss journey to consider skipping it.
The only other thing that I ate at the Fair this year that was off of my diet was a tray of french fries from the Kiwanis Club of Bloomsburg. My grandfather used to get these pretty much every year that he brought me to the Fair when I was a kid, so this little window outside of the Grandstand Building has become a bit of a sentimental tradition for me. The fries are pretty darn good too!
I was VERY tempted to try the Amish Donut Smashburger from The Bluebird Food Truck, and I stared at this picture for an uncomfortable length of time before my better judgment kicked in. If I've hit my target weight by this time next year, I'm going to have to try it.
I don't know a whole lot about race cars, but I thought it was pretty cool that this one came from my hometown and that it has Mighty Mouse painted on it.
The chicken and rabbit building was pretty busy, and I gather that it's not the easiest place for a Bloomsburg Fair staff member to work. The woman in this building must have scolded people to keep their fingers out of the cage at least a dozen times that I overheard.
My favorite animals at the Fair are the baby goats that you get to feed and pet at the Steinmetz Family Farms tent.
They even gave me a photo of the goat that laid in my lap on our way out!
For a guy who enjoys gardening, I really don't know very much about flowers and plants, but I do enjoy looking at them.
I know even less about table settings than I do about plants, but I do know that I love reading all of the criticisms from the judges that are plastered to every part of each display. They can get really catty.
No one would DARE criticize either of these guys!
However I have a slight criticism to share about this lovely piece of stitchwork in the Arts & Crafts building. I'm not a prude by any means, but it doesn't strike me as a good idea for the Fair to have accepted this entry in their quilting contest, let alone to put it on display. Feels like we're sliding farther into Idiocracy every day.
The cakes and other baked goods all looked incredible, but the S'mores Campfire Cake is the one that I wanted to eat the most.
This is a lot closer to what I've been eating this year, but I'm not complaining. Veggies are tasty too, and just like the cake and pastry displays, I would've been very happy if they gave me permission to have a taste.
The Educational Building is usually the last building that we go into on the first night that we go to the Fair each year. I especially enjoyed this project from Southern Columbia Middle School students. Kudos to the teacher who came up with the idea for the kids to make Galile O's cereal boxes.
And that's a wrap on the Bloomsburg Fair 2025. Sorry for the lack of food reviews this year. I have every expectation that I'll have reached by target weight for next year's Fair, so I'll be back to trying as many things as possible.
