Corn Fest Change

It is said, albeit by their own Chamber of Commerce, to be the oldest corn festival in the state of Wisconsin, having begun in 1953.  I am of course referring to the Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival. What is interesting is that for decades claimed attendance was said to be 100,000 persons.  When it first started it was held on Angell Street, north of Main Street, but the festival site was moved to Angell Park a few years later.  Angell Park is but a few blocks from where I grew up.  Things have changed over the years since my attendance at the festival when I was much younger.  I had a long absence from the event, but about six years ago took up going once again at the urging of my nephew, who apparently likes to hear the stories of old.  This post will contrast the days gone by, from my childhood over 40 years ago, to what I see today in the operation of the Corn Fest.  

In times of plenty, as I was growing up, you could get as much corn as you desired for free.  Increased costs caused them to start selling totes, in which you have to fit all your corn.  At first, totes cost one dollar, but today a tote costs $7.  The other major change you note upon entering is that they now charge a one dollar admission fee.  Corn was first steamed at the Oconomowoc Canning Company located right next to Angell Park, and the corn tent was but a stone's throw away from where the corn was steamed in very large steamer basket, which barely would fit in the back of a pick up truck.  Pick up trucks would haul the steamed corn from across the street.  It was always interesting to watch as the corn was unloaded onto a conveyor belt, just as it is today.  Unclaimed ears would run up the conveyor  belt into a dumpster.  The canning company is now a restaurant, and a new steam site had to be built several blocks away.  I guess you cannot blame them for the need to charge for corn now that corn is more expensive, hope to cut down on waste, and of course to pay for the steamer operation, if not its debt.

Husking the corn

Today, volunteers pull the corn off the conveyor belt and want to load it into your tote.  For most years, we have been able to thwart their attempt to limit our collection of corn, by doing it ourselves, or letting them do it and then going back for extra ears and loading more in after husking the corn.  Last year, however, my attempt at a nice load was encumbered by an overzealous volunteer, who kept following our every attempt to load and get every potential ear of corn into the tote.  I recall her rather rudely ruining my planned exodus of an enormous hold of corn.  But, this year, we were not going to let an over anxious volunteer get the better of us. Completely ignoring the helpful volunteer we stacked 22 ears in the tote.  I had room for at least three more, but my nephew commented we need to save room to break this personal record next year.  I think he did not want to push the envelope, so to speak.  The butter girl was so impressed with our haul; she wanted me to reload the tote as she knew she would not get it correct.  Needless to say as I made way though lines of people stacked to purchase their tote, they commented in awe at our heap of corn.   My secret lies in the photo.  You are to be allowed to put as much corn as you can in a tote, but for some reason they think what I do is beyond reason.  I am also one to not let a good ear of steamed corn go to waste.  Anyway, if we were not grabbing it, it is only more ears up the conveyor into the dumpster to become pig feed.

Our 22 ears of  well buttered corn in one tote

Pig feed is how my deceased brother-in-law would describe the eating of corn on the cob. I have always been a big sweet corn eater and why stop now?  I think my nephew likes to hear my stories of eating corn, many of which his father (my twin brother) has likely embellished over the years of telling.  My nephew and his sister did not have bed time books read to them, they were regaled with Uncle Tom stories.  I never knew my mundane life could be considered so exciting.  One story is of the dozen ears I ate the night before boarding a airplane flight to New York.  Needless to say, it was not a pleasant flight.  There is also the stories of the corn eating contest which has gone the way of the free corn. One of my sister's would be dropped off near the park, and would go into the corn tent the back way and obtain a large grocery or garbage bag full of nicely steamed corn.  We would enjoy that Corn Fest namesake that one Sunday every year with the every Sunday BBQ chicken dinner my Dad would make on his enormous (Texan) Weber grill.  

My Dad was involved in a number of civic organizations and would put in many hours working at the brat tent, which used to be right next to the beer tent, or selling carnival tickets, or serve at the Knights of Columbus ring toss game.  When attending the festival, we were not allowed to spend any money for games on the "carnival side."  My dad wished the money we spent to go back to the local organizations that sponsored the games.  We could go on rides, but were encouraged to do so when the tickets had a special, like the first night, or late on Sunday.  Of the games, my favorite was the KC ring toss.  One year I won a whole case of quart bottles.  I was probably about 13 at the time, and had to haul them over to where my Dad was volunteering so he could take them home.  Of course, today, the KC game has you ring the top of a smaller, plastic bottle, and in exchange you get a can of soda.  No more glass quart bottles.

Joe at the KC Ring Toss

It takes volunteers to run booths and events, like the ring toss game.  What I see occurring at the Corn Festival is not unlike what Robert Putnam discusses in his book, Bowling Alone.  The decline of social capital and social organizations in the nation is playing out.  I have previously written on how I also see this manifested in our land use pattern.  The Greatest Generation has it up on the boomers, and others as they were more highly involved in their communities.  The peak period of civic involvement was in my key years of childhood.  You see, the Sun Prairie side used to have a large number of games, in addition to the KC ring toss,  all run by civic or fraternal organizations.  The past six years has shown me that of these games, only the ring toss survives.  There are of course other booths, the ever present evangelical churches displaying salvation, displays of bath re-modelers (more for a home show than a festival), and of course the local bank. This is a major change in our current culture and perhaps not one for the better.  Social engagement is important.  Alexis de Tocqueville commented on it in his seminal work, and of course their is the work by Robert Putnam.

Eaten Ears of Sweet Corn

While my nephew, and my son who often attends with us, will never know the feeling of not having to pay for corn (or a fee-less entry into the event) the main thing they will not see is the volunteers of civic organizations raising money for their own organizations which gets invested back into the community.  Of course their are volunteers, the festival could not run without them, but there is a decline in those important small civic, social and fraternal organizations that helped build the nation.  My father understood this, and as part of the greatest generation, he did his share of civic involvement.  Yes, there is something nostalgic about some of the things that still hold true at the corn fest: the butter girls earn money from tips for college (although I recall buttering as a member of the boy scouts, and back then we used 4 inch paint brush whereas today they wear plastic gloves and roll it in the butter), the conveyor belt, the umbrella clothes line draped with salt shakers (now plastic shakers ather than glass).  But the down turn in the games on the "Sun Prairie" side shows a different side, and a cultural shift. 

As children, we spent a great deal of time at the Corn Fest.  It was the end of summer event.  As for my mom, her benefit was some alone time, as for much of Corn Fest weekend, except Sunday dinner, her husband and the kids were down at the Corn Fest.  Dad working in the brat booth, or at another venue.  As for me, I could either be found eating corn, or playing the ring toss game.  And today, 22 ears of steamed corn for $7, not a bad price.  

Photos by Christopher Hovel, taken on August 21, 2016