On Thursday last week, I finally got an opportunity to return to the New York State Fair, after not having a chance to go in over five years. Although originally set as a date during the vacation that never happened, we opened the invite up to a couple of friends, but only Kellie was able to come up with us for the day. And we certainly made the most of our day up there.
Rather than giving the “guided tour” approach, I would rather strongly encourage to try to get up there sometime during your time here in New York if you haven’t experienced yet. I would also highly recommend visiting during different stages of your life. When you’re a kid, you tend to enjoy the rides, games, maybe the animals and possibly a few other things here and there. When you’re a teenager, you pretend that you’re too cool to like anything but the midway. But when I went this time, I found myself enjoying different parts that I known had always existed, but never had an appreciation for; so in a way, it was like rediscovering and enjoying the NYS Fair all over again.
When I was in the horticultural building, I was reminded of something that I heard on the radio earlier this summer that I really wanted to share. When you really stop and take some time to consider the difficult cultures and communities of New York State, hopefully you come to the realization that not many states in America have the vast variety that we do. In the southern part of the state, you have the capital city of Earth, New York City, which is obviously home to retail, fashion, finance, tourism and the world headquarters of some of the world’s most successful and business-driving corporations. Just a hour or two north, and then stretching north from Canada and westward towards Lake Erie you have a vast area of agriculture that drives the rest of the state. To the surprise of many, New York State, by land area, is mostly comprised of farmland, although sometimes I think we forget about that. And sprinkled over that farmland are small cities that are driven by commerce and universities. Although places like Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse and Binghamton hold most of the upstate population, they really are just surrounded by vast wilderness and the farming way of life. And finally, up north you have the Adirondack Mountain Range, which has even less people living year-round in the area than the rest of upstate New York, which is hard to believe if you have travelled through some of the back roads. Among other geographical features, we tout the Finger Lake Regions, the Southern Tier river valley and the historic Erie Canal villages, in addition to acres of state parks and one of the best roadway and public school systems in the country.
Now don’t take me to be ultra patriotic here, I despise our political position right now in the state. The taxes are pretty harsh and, from what I hear, property tax in New York is one of the worse. Tensions between upstate and downstate are also existent, especially when it comes to funding and gaining attention in the issues that really matter. But just taking a look at all the different types of activities and cultures and activities that our state is involved in, I became a bit more appreciative about everything the New York State government and agencies do for us on a daily basis.
If you don’t live in New York State, take the time to visit and enjoy all the great activities we have to offer here. If you do live in New York State, I’m telling you to go out and enjoy everything the state has to offer because your tax dollars already paid for it. And in similar spirit of spending a few days to visit the sights of New York, make sure you do likewise at the NYS Fair. Because there really is so much to see, to do and to eat that will take a few trips to have said you’ve experienced it all.
