The Planning of a Show at OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON 1995

By Staff
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Branch 20, EDGE&TA 5040 Boston Harbor Rd. N.E. Olympia,
Washington 98506-1850

As most of you know, it is a lot of work putting on a show every
year, and what’s even harder is getting the volunteers to help.
Without all the volunteers, a show cannot be put on. Branch 20 has
a great group of members who come through to make the show a
successful one.

The dates of last year’s show were July 8-9, 1995.
Wednesday, July 5th, the volunteers started arriving at the Roy
Rodeo grounds, the site where the yearly show takes place. This is
our 14th annual show.

Weather plays a very important part in how successful a show
will be. Wednesday was a warm day, Thursday and Friday turned out
nice except for a few drops of rain now and then. We were keeping
our fingers crossed for the good weather to hang on.

The members did a wonderful job getting the show set up. Curt
Warner, the show manager, did a lot of work laying out the plans
for the show and staying on top of any problem that came up. Mary
Ann Nettekoven handled the volunteer schedule. She was good at the
job and she had her list filled long before the show started.

Bob Belleck and John Corbin came and mowed the grass for easy
walking. Joe Chainey brought his tractor with a bucket-loader on
the front, and with the help of John Corbin and his flatbed truck,
they moved a few yards of rock and dirt to fill in the deep craters
that had formed on the show grounds.

John Corbin brought in his forklift for the members to use to
unload and load their engines, a must piece of equipment for a
show. Each year the canopy has to be erected over the main
entrance; Hugh Davis, Charles Corbin and Lew Kerr got the job done
in a short time. Ray Hill donated a cover for the East Gate
entrance.

The restrooms have to be cleaned each year. With the help of
Judy Bender, Mary Ann Nettekoven and Helen Pearman this job was
accomplished in no time.

Before the show starts, a line of chalk has to be laid out for
the rows of engines and tractors that will be coming to display.
With the help of Stan Bender, Wayne Nettekoven, Dan Nicholas, Mike
Moyer, Hugh Davis, Cal Lockwood, Ray Hill, Curt Warner and club
president Paul Pearman, this was accomplished.

Lou Barthelemy furnished the sled for the tractor pull. Wayne
Brazee worked four hours and with the help of other branch members,
the sled was assembled. Tom Needham and his son assisted in spacing
out the markers. What fun, driving markers!

Many people are needed to work on the entrance gates. If
everyone works a couple of hours, then everyone can have time to
enjoy the show. With the help of Alice Corbin, Judy Bender, Evelyn
Ockfen, Betty Cole, Viola VanLandingham, Irene Little, Helen
Pearman, Tom Riley, John Wilson, Don Milbrath, Cal Lockwood, Mac
McBride, Ted Blattenbauer, Brian Edwards, Ray VanLandingham,
Shirley Robinson, Leonard Robinson, Merian, and Dale Hughes, this
job was done.

As the engines started to arrive Friday, the forklift was put to
use. With the help of the drivers on Friday and over the weekend,
the engines were unloaded by: Jon Wilson, Kemer Nelson, Oiva Kari,
Gary Michaels, Norm Hawkins, Dale Fye, Mike Moyer and Don Fifer.
These drivers are much needed for loading and unloading at a
show.

SHOW TIME! Saturday morning it didn’t look very promising,
as it was cloudy and you could feel the moisture in the air. The
parking lot attendants arrived: Gary Ockfen, Sr., Wayne Little,
R.W. Cropley, Warren Roberts, Ryan Kolodejchuck and Paul Pearman
were kept busy working their allotted shifts. Bonnie Elden and
Marie Takeuchi were occupied registering all the displayers giving
them a Show Ribbon, Cup and Show Buttons.

The sun came out and our spirits rose, thankful it was going to
be a beautiful day. At noon the parade of tractors started. The
announcer, Fred Donaldson, did a great job telling the spectators
about the drivers and their tractors. This year Derrell Cole and
Gary Ockfen, Jr., were in charge of organizing the tractor pull
that got started right after the parade. Ed Anderson was the
hook-up director on the large sled, Frank Hall and Dixon Lazares
kept score. The walk-ons for sled weight were the drivers and other
branch members. Mike, the owner and operator of the Steam Donkey,
worked the return sled. Hopper worked the weight transfer sled.
Wayne Brazee with his gas engine Model D Case tractor assisted by
return-pulling the transfer sled. Ray Hill was the hook-up man
alternating pull after pull between the large sled and small sled.
The small sled was used with garden tractors, Gibson, and other
small tractors.

Saturday night the track was cleaned up after dinner by Bob
Keeley with his 40 crawler and Phil Carlson with his John Deere 80.
Bob bladed in the low areas and Phil packed and smoothed with the
big sled along with two tractors for ballast. The 80 earned her
keep, plastic blocking the radiator and running in fourth. Phil got
it up to 200 degrees after two hours of hard pulling. Frank Hall
and Gary Ockfen Jr., assisted Derrell Cole in sprinkling with the
fire hose.

This year’s show had a large assortment of tractors, Army
halftracks, weasels, cars, trucks from various clubs. The display
of hit & miss engines was down, but we had a variety for the
public to see, and there was a good turnout of spectators to view
the many displays.

The vintage trucks and cars filled the allotted space. There
were some real beauties to dream about and wish you had. A lot of
love and patience goes into restoring tractors, engines and vintage
vehicles. There were also whistles and pumps run by steam. Everett
Taft had a working display of grinding corn with his Stover engine.
Hugh Davis displayed his collection of Economy engines from 1 HP to
12 HP, six in all. The 12 HP is big Bertha. She is a heavy engine
on wheels. David Tennant also had his Economy engines along with
Stover engines. Jim Beeler, Larry Hughs and many others had trailer
loads mounted on their trailers. Joe Chainey had his covered
trailer full of steam items.

This year the Swap Meet was larger than before, items got
traded, sold and went to new homes.

Kemer Nelson had a hard time getting to the show. His John Deere
tractor didn’t want to come, so Kemer drove it on the trailer
and it kept going, but the front wheel fell into the tongue of the
trailer. It took several hours to rescue the poor John Deere. Some
of you readers can relate to that, I’ll bet.

There were too many displays to mention every one.
Everyone’s equipment was well restored or original.

The rain we were hoping would stay away came in a downpour on
Sunday morning. The clouds opened up and everyone got soaked. Some
packed up early and some stuck it out until 3:00 for the raffle
drawing. Everywhere you looked there was a large group, crowded
under the canopies of displayers, looking for a piece of earth that
was a little higher to keep their feet dry. But the spectators
didn’t seem to mind if it was raining, they kept coming. Some
had small umbrellas, some had large umbrellas, some even went to
the store and bought garbage bags to put over their shoulders. They
thanked us for staying open so they could see the show. That goes
to prove how great Washington people are.

Sunday the tractor parade and pull was canceled because of the
rain. The arena was a muddy bog. The sled was dismantled with the
help of John Corbin, his equipment, and the whole family taking
part between showers, but everyone had a sopping good time!

Monday morning the last of these volunteers got to work cleaning
up the grounds: Ray Vanlandingham, Bill Englund, Joe Chainey, Jon
Wilson, Jim Beeler, Ray Hill, MaryAnn Nettekoven, Wayne Nettekoven,
Curt Warner, Dan Nicholas, Paul Pearman and John Parson. Some
stayed overnight in their RVs and some went home and came back for
the clean-up.

It is so enjoyable to watch a show come alive and so sad to see
it empty after everyone leaves. Next year we will be featuring hot
air engines on our show days July 13-14, 1996. Hope to see some of
you readers there. Write me if you need directions to Roy,
Washington. Our third annual Swap Meet will be held on April 20,
1996. Everyone is welcome!

  • Published on Apr 1, 1996
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