The ex-ex-Ex


 Posted on August 21st, 2022 –

For the last two years the Canadian National Exhibition, a.k.a. The Ex, has been shut down due to the government’s benign love and concern for us all. So for a while there it was looking like The Ex was going to become The ex-Ex.

But it looks like management managed to turn it around and revive the moribund fair.

And we went.

Off the top I’d like to voice my disappointment at the entrance fees. Frankly, $25 for an adult with a measly $5 discount for junior or senior is a bit steep just to get you onto the grounds. And once you’re in, almost everything else costs extra.

By the time we got in it was starting to get dark and stormy and moody but in every other way it was the traditional ex-ex-Ex we remembered.

The same old (heavily weighted) games of chance line the main concourse. The games reluctantly release the same old ubiquitously crappy prizes into the stream of humanity as it flows by.

If I sound a bit snarky it’s only because I have some insight into those prizes beyond merely having them start to come apart a few weeks later. It’s not even that I remember the toys being of any better quality during my lifetime, it’s just that I got to look behind the curtain, as it were.

But I digress.

As you can see by the dearth of photos when compared to some past expeditions, we didn’t stick around too long. We’d gone out on a lark, not really expecting to be able to get in. I grabbed only the camera, and only “just in case”.

To our mild surprise we did find a way in but there would be no frozen ketchup or iced mustard, just mild paranoia followed by cops performing desperate CPR on a man with a cane and an artificial leg.

Should we manage to get in again, next time we’re coming prepared.

What's on your mind?