2023, Family, Food, Kids, Mysteries, State Fair

Wagons Ho!

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YA was three when I took her to the fair for the first time.  We took her umbrella stroller although she didn’t use it too much that day (YA never liked any kind of enclosure – no exersaucer, no playpen, no doorway jumper).  The following year we didn’t bother with the stroller at all – she kept up with no issues or complaints.

Since this is our experience, we are both a little surprised at the stroller revolution.  Strollers have gotten bigger and bigger as the years have gone by.  Now there are side-by-side doubles, front to back doubles, not to mention all the additional pockets, cupholders and clip-on fans.  They seem like a lot of trouble to me but they are clearly popular with parents of toddlers.

I shouldn’t be surprised that strollers have taken the next step – wagons.  The fair was full of them – large wagons, almost all with canopies.  They remind me of the old Conestoga covered wagons that took settlers west. Most of them also have a lot of extra storage area and, of course, cup holders.  Most of them have seating and trays (think tv tray) inside.  And have I mentioned storage?  Cookies, stuffed animals, shirts, bubble blowers, straw hats…. If you can find it at the fair, YA and I have probably seen it in one these wagons over the last week.  I saw a handful filled with so much stuff that there wasn’t room for the kids.  On Wednesday, a family with their full wagon held up the bus back to the park `n ride as they figured out what to do with all their stuff before they could fold it up to go in the bus luggage compartment. 

Who know what the next step in stroller evolution will be but for now I’m absolutely sure that if I looked closely enough, I’d find that one of these covered wagons was named “Intimida”!

What would you have wanted in your Conestoga if you were heading west?

45 thoughts on “Wagons Ho!”

  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    This is strange…I told a group of parents at the fair that they looked like they had circled their wagons. There was a group of them standing around strollers, circled and parked in the street in front of the Dairy Building. They did look like the circled wagons of a wagon train as portrayed in old TV westerns.

    FYI AND OT: In doing research about my wagon box (the storage box from covered wagons held beneath or on the back of the wooden wagon) that I inherited, I found that Conestoga Wagons were not used by families for moving. They were used only for freight prior to freight trains. They were built in Indiana, at that point in history the edge of the frontier opening into Iowa/Wisoconsin/Minnesota/Nebraska in the 1830’s. They were pulled by oxen not horses because oxen pulled more weight, and were dehorned and castrated to reduce aggression. Oxen are decidedly less photogenic than horses, so few westerns depict them. I have an ox yoke hanging here in my porch that goes with the wagon box.

    My wagon box holds Christmas Decorations.

    IT.IS.RAINING.HERE! Happy Day.

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        3. I am somewhat redeemed. “The Pennsylvania town where Conestoga wagons were built was also famous for a certain torpedo-shaped cigar, which was called a Conestoga Cigar. It was a favorite of the wagon drivers.”
          This from Bill Bryson.

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    3. There’s a book called ‘The Oregon Trail’ by Rinker Buck that I really enjoyed. It’s him and his brother traveling the trail, maybe in the early 2000’s? (I don’t recall the exact time). There’s a lot of background on wagons and the mules he found to pull them.
      I’m sure I got the recommendation from someone here.

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      1. Dry at the fair as well — early this morning some of the vendors were freaking out, bringing things in and telling people that the grandstand was open because they were expecting a storm with hail. Nothing.

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  7. September 1, 1836. Narcissa Whitman becomes the first documented European American woman to cross the Continental Divide.
    I think a wife would be good to have in my wagon.

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  9. flour, sugar, the axe, rope, good knives, good shoes… someone that knew where they were going and what they were doing better than me!
    And don’t do the mountains in cold weather.

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  10. I’d like to know how to store water in a wagon crossing rough trails and mountains. Clean water and coffee would be important to me, as well as the staples of flour and sugar, maybe some rice and cornmeal if possible. I would also need cooking utensils. It would be beneficial to have a goat or two along for the journey but I can also see some problems with that. I agree with having warm clothes. I think a person would also need a weapon for self-defense. Since I have zero experience with weapons of any kind, I’m not sure what that would be. I think avoiding trouble might be pretty important to me. I might be tempted to just stay home!

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        1. I’ll never forget the first time I went to the drugstore in downtown Northfield and was confronted by the spinner rack filled with postcards of dead James gang members.

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  12. All this talk about covered wagons and their occupants reminded me of “Sweet Betsy from Pike”. I wasn’t aware the song had so many verses but it describes the journey west pretty completely and colorfully:

    Click to access SWEETBETSY.pdf

    Pike is, of course, Pike County Missouri, from whence many wagons originated. The Pikers, as they were known, had a distinctive way of speaking that set them apart and probably some idiosyncratic mannerisms as well.
    I have a book of poems written by John Hay, one of Lincoln’s personal secretaries, that includes four “Pike County Ballads” written in vernacular. Whether it’s an accurate depiction I can’t say.

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