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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe 27th Huron Pioneer Thresher Reunion, 1988-09-07, Page 6PAGE A-6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1988. George remembers Reunion's early days George McBride keeps busy in the workshop in one comer of his Carlow-area bam these days but has plenty of time to remember the struggles of the early days of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association 's reunion. The thing that amazes young people most when they hear a steam engine start up, says George McBride one of the survivors of the original group that mounted the first Blyth Thresher Reunion 27 summers ago, is how quiet the engines are. Even back when the Thresher Reunion was starting, he says, there were many people who had never seen the huge old steam tractors in operation. George recalls giving a ticket to the show to a young man working on his farm and the man being amazed, when the huge machine started up, how quiet it was compared to the noise of a gas or diesel tractor. George has seen a lot in those 27 editions of theThresher Reunion. He remembers that for the first couple of years the group worried how it would make ends meet. As he remembered one recent day, sitting in the workshop of his CarlovV-area barn, they got the tickets printed early then went out to sell them to raise the money needed to help meet the costs of getting the show going. They only charged a dollar in those days and the ladies got in free because there were no events to attract them at the time. George Radford helped the show by drawing the equipment at cost, he says. The crowd was good enough (about 500 people) that they made ends meet those early years and started on the road to the success the event is today. George McBride almost didn’t get involved in the first Thresher Reunion at all. There had been talk about forming a steam show like the one in Brigden, he recalls, but he’dheard nothing more of it. Then Billy Joe Hallahan of Blyth told him to come up to the organizational meeting in Blyth in June 1962. He felt out of place, he recalls because he only knew about three people there. He was also you nger than most of the others who were veterans of years of work on threshing gangs. But, he says now, “I’m not sorry 1 went.’’ For 20 years worth of Thresher Reunions, George’s job was drawing the firewood to stoke the big steamers. Now he’s relinquish­ ed the job and he says it feels strange not to have any specific job to do on the day of the show. Still he helps with what he can and last year helped pick stones on a new section of parklandaddedtothe Blyth agricultural park where the Reunion is held. The Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association, sponsors of the event, have been very fortunate to find the young people to take over the ru lining of the show when the original founders got too old. It was a big question for all the steam clubs across the province whether the young people would come along to keep the shows going or if i they'd die from lack of new blood. But with the Blyth reunion he thinks the young members have dune a good job of taking over. The biggest change he’s seen in the Thresher Reunion over the years he thinks is the fact the association isn’t worried about financial troubles as it was in the early years. He also notes there are a lot more sidelines other than the steam engines themselves these days, things like the craft show that provide interesting things for women spectators. But, he says, he misses many of the people who helped get the show off the ground in the early years. Of those at the very first meeting in 1961 only Simon Hallahan is left, he says and from the 1962 organizational meeting only Simon, Dan Hallahan and George himself are left. “It leaves an awful gap,” he says. Being a mere youngster among the others in the original group (he’ll be 74 this fall) George was too young to have taken part in the old threshing excursions to western Canada that had pretty well petered out by the 1930’s when the drought wiped out crops across the prairies. He did work around the area exchanging help for when the threshing gangs would arrive on the family farm. He usually got the job of pitching sheaves in the barn, one of the dirtiest jobs on the threshing gang. In 1953 he and his brother bought a threshing machine of their own because they were frustrated trying to get someone else to get their threshing done in time before the grain got ruined from too much rain. They Continued on page 8 PLANNOW! COME TO: to the Pioneer Thresher & Hobby Association on their 27th Reunion 'TVevv Styles-New Looks" While you are in the area visit your friendly Chev-Olds dealer. McCutcheon motors LTD. 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