For decades there was what was referred to as The Grab Bag Booth at the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair. The booth was there for kids to get consolation prizes, featuring, of course, real brown paper grab bags full of goodies, that parents could buy if they didn’t win at the wheel games of chance. And there were balloons … and some fair ladies to keep the fair goodness going strong.

The Grab Bag Booth is now gone from the midway. At one point, for many years, my mom, Sally Van Develde was the chairwoman of the booth. This piece is an annual reprise to honor the booth’s goodness, the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair and those things that never disappear like helium balloons into the dark sky … Memories of a special lady — my mom.

Growing up in Fair Haven with parents in the fire company, Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair time meant time spent inflating punch balls during the day and helium balloons at night.

That’s because my mom, Sally, ran the Grab Bag Booth in the 1970s and 80s. It was the go-to spot for kids whose parents had a losing streak at the game booths and needed to buy consolation fair memento.

During the day, the kids of the Grab Bag Booth ladies, like Barbara Lang and Jeanette Choma, would hang out in the fire truck bays at the firehouse with an air hose, a bag of deflated punch balls and a lot of silly compadres. And so the blowing up went, with lots of giggles and a few bursts … and more giggles.

And at night, the balloon dude would roll Windy over to the booth — a helium tank covered with a creepy clown face. And there either I, my mom or another young volunteer would stand, affixing a plastic gadget at the end of deflated balloons onto Windy’s big red mouth — one after the other — all night.

It was a sought-after job. After all, the kids helping at the fair got tickets — cards that could be used as money for food and/or rides. My mom loved her little helpers and treated them well. And, at the end of the night, before Windy went bye-bye, we inflated balloons, inhaled the helium and talked like Donald Duck.

That was when we thought we were way too cool for any other booth helper’s shoes.

Oh, wait. Did I say that? Somehow I don’t think inhaling helium at a fair night’s close would fly like an escaped balloon these days. Oh, well. A good memory was made, it was fun and, guess what? No harm was done.

Here’s a secret about Sally the balloon lady: She was known to be a major contributor to the helper kids’ giggles by taking a random hit of helium and saying silly things to them. If you knew Sally …

Thank you from the kids who called you Aunt Sally and me, Mom! Up, up and away …

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