HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-07-13, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 13, 2017. PAGE 9.
Countdown to IPM
`Money Match' attracted 215,000 to Wingham
4Lit
WELCOME TO THE
INTERNATIO.I k L PLOWING MATCH
1
What an opening day!
World-famous astronaut Neil Armstrong was on
Plowing Match, which was held just east of Wingham.
for that special day. (Courtesy photo)
hand to help open the 1978 International
Tens of thousands were in attendance
Continued from page 8
became a director with the OPA,
eventually moving on to be part of
the organization's executive.
He would serve as the president of
the OPA the year following hosting
the match, when the IPM was in
Chatham -Kent. The challenges he
faced as the president of the
organization, he said, were
completely different than those he
encountered as a host of the match.
Armstrong said that as the OPA
president, he was at least able to
focus singularly on the task at hand.
When he was the host of the match,
he had to look at things three
different ways: as a host, at the
Huron County level and at the OPA
provincial executive level, which
made things complicated, he said.
Doing one of those jobs, he said,
was enough, let alone trying to do all
three in the same year.
The workload and responsibility,
however, didn't deter Armstrong as
he continued to rise in the ranks,
spending time with the Canadian
Plowing Council, eventually serving
as its president as well.
Quite the site
The 1978 International Plowing Match in Huron County is on record as being one of the best -
attended matches in the history of the event. As this aerial photograph of the site shows, an
IPM tented city sure can transform a farm. (courtesy photo)
Again, he said that serving at the
national level offered a completely
different experience from hosting
the match and serving at the
provincial level.
He would go on to be the president
of the national organization from
1986 to 1990 and that led him to
serve in a Canadian Coach Judge
capacity at two World Ploughing
Matches. The first match saw him
travel to Amana in Iowa in the
U.S.A. for his duties as a back-up
judge at his first world match in
1988 and then to Kleppe, Norway
for the match the following year
where he was the Canadian Coach
Judge.
He would then go on to judge at
several local competitions in the
years that would follow.
The Armstrongs would eventually
move to Bruce County, living
between Walkerton and Hanover for
a number of years before they
moved to their current home just a
few kilometres north of Blyth.
While in Bruce County,
Armstrong was brought on as a
member of the executive committee
when the match was held near
Walkerton in 1993.
And while he's been involved with
various plowing organizations in
prominent positions across three
decades, Armstrong insists that his
"official" time with IPMs has come
to a close. He and Carol hope to
attend this year's match, if health
allows them, but only as spectators.
Armstrong feels the match is
important for rural residents as well
as those who live in urban areas,
which is why he's been such a
supporter over the years.
While he always viewed the match
in a rather progressive way, focusing
on not just plowing, but the rural
way of life, he knew that plowing
would always be the centrepiece of
the match.
"Plowing is still an important part
of the match," he told The Rural
Voice in 1993. "It's a skill that can be
turned into a competition for people.
"It's important that urban people
learn about plowing so that when
they drive down the road, they don't
look straight ahead, but look to the
fields and are able to understand
what's happening to those fields in
order to get a bit of an idea what
goes into producing the food that
they eat"
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