One of the new vendors at the fair this year is a bakery; they have three items on their menu – an Amish donut, a peanut butter chocolate donut and sweet tea. No coupon. We stopped by a few time over the last week and the lines were unbelievable. The photo above was taken at 11 a.m. on Friday and doesn’t even begin to do the line justice. It was the longest line I’ve ever seen at the fair – even longer than Pickle Pizza last year and Nordic Waffle their first year. Based on how fast people were being served, I’m guessing people were waiting 45 minutes or so for their donut. Pickle Pizza and Nordic Waffle at least move faster than that!
I once slept out overnight outside of Dayton’s to get Bon Jovi tickets. I got to the Fitzgerald at 5 a.m. for the last Morning Show and several baboons waited with me for quite a while for Jim Ed Poole’s service. And I will admit to sitting outside Aldi’s once a year for 2+ hours to get the wine and cheese advent calendars, but at least I’m one of the first few in line and the wait is spent sitting in my stadium chair. But I’m generally not good about lines; I tend to start weighing the benefit of what’s at the end of the line versus the time I’m spending standing in it.
So I’ll be passing on the Amish donut. If they return next year, maybe it won’t be such a crush.
What are some times you’ve stood on line for a long time? Was it worth it?
Trail Baboon 
It’s almost never worth it. I refuse to stand in long lines. Anything desired by so many people must represent a lowest common denominator in my reckoning.
We were at the Japanese Obon festival in Como Park recently. There were a number of food trucks offering Japanese street food. At each of those trucks long lines snaked away, representing a wait of at least 45 minutes. It just wasn’t a worthy way to spend our time.
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Never
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Anyone (besides VS) know what an Amish donut is?
I’m sure I’ve stood in line for 45 minutes for something – probably at the Renaissance Faire. And I’ve waited at least half an hour in some restaurant I really wanted to try in San Francisco.
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I had an ‘amish pie’ at the farm show in Rochester this summer. It was like a pop-tart. About that size. Really yummy! But I don’t know if that’s what an amish donut is…
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After six trips to the fair I can’t tell you what makes an Amish donut either, since I never succumbed to THE LINE. A quick jaunt over to the internet however suggests that they aren’t really any different from any other good yeasted donut…..
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Waited 90 minutes to be first in line for Fargo theater showing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Throughout the film, my Dad griped, “I waited in line for over a hour for this?!” I couldn’t agree more. Ever since then, I’ve rarely watched it but always with the fast forward button at the ready. He held that grudge and refused to go to any of the remaining Star Trek films. I’ve attended all the others but always later. Never a line.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
This is my second attempt. I had a reply all written when a puppy landed on my lap, causing my finger to hit the wrong spot. It all disappeared. So I made biscuits for breakfast and now I am trying again, out of puppy range.
I am not a patient line-waiter. That will not surprise anyone. Few retail items or experiences are worth my time. Often “hot” retail items can be found at garage sales or thrift shops for $.25 a year after all that frenzy. However, back in the bad old days of college registration, I usually had to set aside a day for registration and line-standing. When my alphabetized time arrived for registration, I would stand in one line to gather cards for a certain class, then stand in another line to deliver the card to the registrar, then stand in a third line to get a printed copy of my schedule. It was slow and tedious. I usually had a paperback copy of some book with me to pass the time. That was the only thing I was willing to wait for that long both at Iowa State University (Ames, not Iowa City) and the U of MN, Twin Cities. Tech and computerization changed this process. Now students sit and watch a computer screen for whatever class is needed to graduate.
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Just remembered the few times that YA had to wait in a long line to sign up for swim lessons at the Southdale YMCA. Outside, even in bad weather. After a few sessions, I realized that the kids were spending more time sitting on the side of the pool being lectured than actually swimming so we changed to the Blaisdell Y. No line, cheaper and better lessons and one lane open for laps (which I used every week)!
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I slept a few nights on the floor of Gatwick Airport (London) in 1978 to get a Laker Airways cheap flight to NYC.
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I don’t think I’ve ever waited in a long line. If the wait is more than 15 minutes, it’s not worth it to me. Also, I’m not a fan of having people so close to me. That phobia increased exponentially during the pandemic. I still stand 6-8 feet away from the person ahead of me. I can’t control the person who lines up behind me though. I’ve noticed that people have different feelings about personal space. Mine might be extreme but I can’t help it. If a person queues up behind me and stands too close, it might cause me to leave. There’s never been anything that important to me.
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I’ve waited in some lines to get into rock concerts. Or in the parking ramp getting back out of the concert. Like Sherrilee wrote, I waited outside the Daytons doors to rush into the ticket window for certain tickets. Maybe The Who. Wasn’t much of a line, just waiting for the guard to open the door and rush upstairs to the ticket window.
I don’t like lines either.
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The only seriously long line I remember waiting in was for 1987 World Series Tickets at Dayton’s in Southdale. I waited for 1-2 hours (an eternity for me), then either was told they’d sold out or decided I’d just watch on TV and went home. Even then, it was just as exciting watching on TV, and I didn’t go deaf with the noise at the Metrodome! *blechhh!* Don’t get me started on that disaster of a baseball park.
Now days, watching sports on TV is the sane, inexpensive, comfortable, most informative way to go. Anyone who waits in a long line for any sporting good ticket is either in it for the atmosphere of “witnessing history first hand” or looking to make a buck reselling tickets.
There’s enough required waiting in the world as it is. I don’t need to waste time just to spend money on something that I may or may not enjoy.
Chris in Owatonna
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I remember waiting in line for quite a long time to vote in the 1984 election. That’s the only time the wait was very long, as far as I recall.
The lines were quite long in my polling place in 2008, but I had already voted by election day, and I was one of the people trying to keep the lines moving along.
The line for the final Morning Show was a pretty long one.
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Yes, we arrived too late to get into the main auditorium, ended up across the street watching on a screen.
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