We asked for the greatest New York State Fair love stories and you delivered. Today, we begin our series of true love found at the State Fair, with this story about a couple who found each other at a popular Midway game. There’s still time for you to share your own Fair-related love story, and photos if you have them, by emailing jcroyle@syracuse.com.
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During the New York State Fair, thousands will try their luck, or skill, at the myriad of games along the Midway.
Most walk away empty-handed. Others go home with a stuffed animal or trinket, quickly forgotten before summer ends.
But at the 1996 NYS Fair, Heather and Michael Banks were about to win big on the Midway, though neither of them knew it yet.
Heather says the State Fair is “in her blood.” She grew up on the Fairgrounds, where her grandparents used to sell a product in the Center of Progress and Horticulture Building to defog your eyeglasses, swimming goggles and windshields.
Her favorite game to play on the Midway is “I Got It,” where players throw rubber balls into a box and try to land five in a row. It’s like bingo. When you win, you shout, “I got it!” then claim your prize from a pile of toys or “kitchen stuff.”
On one hot day in 1996, when she was 17, the Baldwinsville high school student arrived at the Fair with her sister and a friend.
“Of course, I made my way to the Midway to play my favorite game,” she remembered.
Her future husband, Michael, was running the game.
Heather and Michael Banks in 1996 when they first met.Courtesy of Heather Banks
The 18-year-old from Liverpool was not happy about it. His mother had “given him an ultimatum” to get a job at the Fair.
“It was an extremely hot day,” Heather said, “and while we were playing, he happened to ask me if I’d get him a Pepsi from one of the food stands nearby.”
She did. It was a small gesture. But there was a spark.
“He was giving me free games,” Heather said. “When he would look away, I’d eat the ice out of his cup, thinking he didn’t see me, but he did.”
Heather said nothing much happened afterwards, and she did not “really think twice about him” after she left the Fairgrounds.
But she returned to the Fair a few days later and, sure enough, Michael was back at the “I Got It” game.
“This day, he asked for my phone number,” she said. “And because he was from Liverpool and I was from Baldwinsville, for some reason I put my address down on the piece of paper too. I’ve never done that before.”
It was a good thing she did.
After his shift ended, they walked around the Fair. They played games and Michael gave her a stuffed bear he won. He also bought her a rose.
“At the end of the night when the Fair was closing, he walked me to Gate One,” Heather recalled, “That was the last time I thought I’d see him.”
The Wednesday after Labor Day, she began her junior year of high school.
When she got home after the first day, her mother told her that “some guy named Mike came by for you, his number is by the phone.”
With “shock and excitement,” she called him.
He admitted on the day he asked for her number, he and another boy “were in competition with each other to see who could get more numbers from girls.” He kept them all in his sock because his shorts didn’t have pockets, and he lost every single one of them.
But because Heather had written down her address, he had somehow memorized it and decided to come over the day before he started school to see her.
Their budding romance started slowly. They would visit each other at their homes, and they went to see “Space Jam” at the Tri-County Mall.
Eight years after their meeting, Heather and Michael got married in 2004 and will celebrate their 20th anniversary in October.
They have two daughters and the family lives in Baldwinsville.
Heather and Michael Banks at the "I Got It" game in 2022 with their daughters.Courtesy of Heather Banks
Every year they return to the Fair and play “I Got It.”
Heather believes she’s the best player in the family, though she says she and Michael were the “big winners in 1996.”
“We sure got it,” she jokes.
Whenever their friends “are having difficulty finding their special someone,” fed up with blind dates or dating websites, Heather has some simple advice.
“You got to go to the Fair,” she said.
More State Fair Romance
NYS Fair Love Stories: A boastful proclamation leads to a first kiss at the duck pond
NYS Fair Love Stories: Their eyes met in 1986 across the crowd; they’ve been together ever since
NYS Fair Love Stories: Michael Bolton and buffalo burgers made for a great first date