https://open.spotify.com/episode/7I45t1EwqjNi6sufxEcB6i?si=f688a7ff605042c4
Every summer, state and county fairs serve up some iconic (and sometimes unholy) foods.
If you’re near Moses Lake, Washington, in the next couple days, you can try one of those famous foods, at the Grant County Fair: the Spaceburger.
The story of the Spaceburger starts in the Space Age, specifically at the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle.
The event also known as the Century 21 World’s Fair was a showcase for all kinds of futuristic, high-tech inventions, and its signature building was the 605-foot Space Needle.
One of the foods at that world’s fair was a burger designed to look like a flying saucer.
They had special machines sort of like waffle irons which would slice off the ends of the white bread and seal up the burger and toppings inside.
A few years after that fair, The Lioness Club of Moses Lake got hold of a few of the machines and brought Spaceburgers to the Grant County Fair.
The machines are key to the Spaceburger; so is the special Spaceburger sauce, which club members prepare ahead of the fair.
They keep secret the seasonings they use in the sauce and in the ground beef.
It all ends up in between two slices of white bread, along with some shredded lettuce.
The vintage Spaceburger machines can cook it all up in about a minute, which is useful, because the club sells thousands of these burgers each day of the fair.
There are stories about people who would buy 75 burgers at a time, eating a few right away and then keeping the others in the freezer for the rest of the year.
For a while, the club also made a space-breakfast sandwich with eggs, ham and cheese, though eventually they just focused on the burger.
After all, that one is a fair favorite.
Selling Spaceburgers at the fair each August and for a few days each spring generates enough money for a whole year’s worth of the Lioness Club’s charity work.
Today in 1911, Hawaii’s Duke Kahanamoku broke the world record for the 100 yard freestyle swim by more than four and a half seconds.
He broke the record by so much that the Amateur Athletic Union took years to formally recognize his record setting swim!
And there was so much more to come for this sports great.
History & Mysteries of the “Space Burger” in Moses Lake, WA (The Quake 102.1)
Duke Kahanamoku (Library of Congress)
