Northwest Ohio Antique Machinery Association Annual Show Report

By Staff
Published on March 1, 1977

Ohio 45817

It is said a story of success may start with a tragedy. That is
what we started with this year. On Friday, our first day of show
started out with rain, and, as the day progressed, it only rained
harder. We couldn’t do anything and didn’t have enough
people to pay postage. On the second day, though, that was not
quite true. We had a polka dance in the afternoon and evening and
the floor was dry and covered with people.

Saturday morning is when we like to think we got started and
what a start we had. The mud, tramped by thousands of people, plus
hot sun made the grounds a hard, dry, dustless place of enjoyment
for all.

We had plenty of logs for the old Enterprize saw mill and
Gilbert Oborn, E. J. Haffer and, when he wasn’t making apple
butter, Ted Yoder (all top sawyers) kept the saw running the rest
of the weekend. A small nail in one of the walnut logs gave people
a chance to see them file saw blade.

Saturday went along about as we had it scheduled. The craft tent
being an outstanding attraction for the ladies who were interested
in spinning of wool, weaving, macramae and pottery
demonstrations.

Threshing by one or the other of our separators, one for gas and
the other for steam went, on an increased schedule due to not being
able to run Friday.

Utilization of parking space has always been a problem with us
and it has been solved by a man named Breitigam, his wife and their
neighbor, who do parking of cars from horse back. Mrs. Breitigam
came by the mike stand and looked so very tired and one thing led
to another so I asked her to go to dinner with me. I might have
gotten away with this except I forgot to turn off the mike. You
guessed it, it was heard all over the grounds and who was the next
person to come to the mike, standing twelve feet tall (on horse
back), Mr. Breitigam. He lifted me off the ground about two feet
and said: ‘Next time you proposition my wife, turn off the
mike.’

Dick Boehr, our local realtor ran the mike on Sunday. If we ask
him, he may do it again next year.

When we started, we were told by the electric company they would
put up a large enough transformer to last at least five year’s
growth, so about dusk everything was going full speed and us in our
fifth year. One large explosion spraying transformer oil and then
darkness. The reason I brought this up is to share with you the
approach taken by two people in the crowd at the time. One was a
lady-no not a lady, a person who went into a screaming fit
demanding her money back, (it was given) saying she would never
come again. Now, let me tell you about Willis Anderson. At the time
of outrage, we were having a square dance with music by the Dave
Morgan Band. They took a break and Sandy (their vocalist) went home
to milk the cows. During the break Willie Anderson went to his home
and brought his portable generator and soon we had light, music and
dancing. I can see a message in all this and although people
don’t change, I am sure we have more than our share of Willies
at antique shows.

On Saturday we had the largest gate since we started five years
ago and Sunday it was even larger.

The operations on Sunday were preceded by a fine church service
with Gospel Crusaders from Berne, Indiana.

We had in addition to the Dave Morgan band a group of dulcimer
players from the Greater Lima area. The dulcimer is an instrument
with a very gentle sound and they were not able to drown out the
gas engines, so they went out in the woods under a large oak tree
with people sitting around on grass and provided the ultimate in
folk music.

One of the things that seems to highlight the weekend is the
parade of equipment….this year, when it was time for the parade,
there was a line of cars coming in the gate that extended clear to
town and still coming. I have always started the parade promptly on
time, but with the number of people still coming, I intentionally
got lost in the crowd for about fifteen minutes. Welt just about
then one man who had to go home early, started loading his 65 HP
Case. Suddenly someone said the engine stopped and was sitting with
only one inch of the right wheel on the trailer. This made my hair
stand on end, but a lot of care and understanding, plus a large
forklift got it loaded. About this time I heard someone call me to
the mike stand to announce parade and I probably lost track of
time, so with people still coming in we got the parade started. We
let people in the parade tell about their own equipment and it made
an interesting way of displaying equipment.

Looking back at what we did, we must also look ahead at what we
want to do this year. The club has purchased a smaller threshing
machine for the people with 12 to 25 horsepower tractors. We also
expect to have some more contests, including a log rolling contest
down on the pond.

Our club used part of our profits to help tar the driveway
through engine row so there should be less dust problem in that
area. Also, we want to spend some time this winter removing some
growth from under some large trees so we will have more flea market
room.

So looking forward to this year’s pleasures and problems, we
hope to be seeing you all there.

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