08/26/2026
It began for us in 1975. Mom and I were in the Farm Machinery Building of the New York State Fair, looking at the entries of Indian corn in the Forage and grain competition. They were terribile. Short ears, dull colors, just awful. I leaned over to Mom and said "We throw away better stuff than this."
The superintendent heard me, and said "Bring some in." Thinking the corn had to be grown that year, we said "But we live in Pompey. We can't possibly grow corn to be ready for this year's fair."
"Neither can they. This corn was grown last year."
So that year Mom watched our corn for the very best ears, straight rows, filled out, bright colors, dried it by hanging it in the cellar, and packed it away in a metal garbage can. When the time came, she entered it, and of course it blew all the other entries away. So she did it again the next year. And the next, and on and on...
This was before the Internet, so everything was done through the mail with (gasp) paper documents. The Entry Department sent you a Premium Book with a paper entry form inside. You filled out the form and sent it back with a check for the entry fee. Simple. Efficient. Easy.
After the Machinery Building burned down the competition was moved to the Horticulture Building, near the vegetable competition. Intrigued, we started entering that, too. And we started winning, so we continued, expanding what we entered as we learned.
But now, things have changed. Enterng is now online only, using a website that isn't the easiest to learn how to navigate. You have to get a vender ID number from the state to get paid the money that goes along with the premiums. This year, the online premium book and entry form weren't posted until mid-August, and then only the vegetable competition. Forage and Grain, where the Indian corn is entered, the one most important to us, is missing.
When we began, you brought in vegetables the evening before the fair opened, and they were judged on Opening day - while they were still in good condition. This year, you could bring things in on Sunday or Monday, but they wouldn't be judged until Friday, by which time many things would be so much garbage.
And to top it all off, while the entry fee has gone up, the premiums paid along with the ribbons in the vegetable divisions haven't changed in the 40 or so years that we've been entering.
It was all just too much. We decided it was just not worth the trouble any more, So, for the first time in 50 years, they'll hold a New York State Fair without the Andrews family entering the competitions. Will we go back? Maybe, if things change again, for the better this time. But I don't really expect it.
