Festivals and Fairs
The annual festival was never this big when I was a kid. When I went to school we had a moon walk and a small haunted house in one of the classrooms. The Polka-Tels were the band every year and we had a choice of kielbasa or hotdogs at the concession stand. This reminds me of Boblo, its huge and alot of fun.
James got to meet many friends for the first time including Diana Ball who is friends with Criss and Kenny and who I went to school with at St Alberts.
While we were at a neighbors graduation party they told us what a great time they had at the Dearborn Heights Festival which was going on simultaneously with the graduation party. We were not aware of it and after the graduation party went to the North side of town and saw a pretty decent festival going on. James is still very small and cannot ride on any of the rides, but he enjoys the atmosphere and the sounds and each day is a new adventure for him so in that perspective it was worth while.
My mother used to tell me that Dearborn Heights was shaped like a barbell with the North and South sides connected by one road (Gulley). The North side is about twice the size of the south side so it would be an uneven barbell at best but still a decent analogy.
Another visit to Boblo which was without a doubt one of the best days of the summer. We used to leave for Boblo on the Detroit ships, which took over an hour to get to the island (but they did have a bar and dancing for the adults, which made them very popular on the way home). As a young boy I remember stairing at the huge engine that powered the Detroit boats.
While the Detroit boats were fun, it was a long trip and kids would eventually get bored. The adults enjoyed them because of the bar and dancing on the boat. However they did add a port in Gibraltar MI with smaller boats (similar to Mackinaw but not as fast) and all of a sudden the boat ride was only about a half hour. We certainly preferred this as it gave us more time on the island and more time to go on rides.
The Boblo Island event was unlike anything probably anywhere else in the world. First off it was an amusement park that was on an island so you had to take a boat ride to get there and back. Second, it was in Canada so you were actually visiting a foreign country when you came (yes there were custom booths there but I don’t remember them ever questioning anyone either going or coming from Boblo). The Boblo boat ride was in itself an event and so popular that each year before the Michigan/Notre Dame game (when it was in Ann Arbor) there would be a boat race between the two teams using two of the Boblo boats. The amusement park operated from 1898 until its closure on September 30, 1993. Its amusement rides were sold in 1994. The park was located on Bois Blanc Island, Ontario.
When we arrived at Boblo the entire family would ride the water log ride, after that we were on our own till about 6pm when we would meet back and go on the Pirate ride (which was near the docks) before leaving.