HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association Thresher Reunion, 1987-09-09, Page 18PAGE A-18. THE CITIZEN. WEDNESDAY. SEPTEMBER 9. 1987.
Barb Storey showed off her maple syrup last year as one of the many participants in the craft show.
Joining in the saiute
to the
26th Annual
Thresher Reunion
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Blyth 523-9273
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on the occasion of the
26th Annual Thresher Reunion
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Craft show adds to the event
First-time visitors to the Blyth
Threshers’ Reunion are some
times astounded by the size and
variety of the Craft Show which
takes up the entire lower floor of
the Community Arena, but co-or-
dinator Joan Houston says it is only
natural that such a show has
evolved as part of the Steam Show.
“It came about because there
wasn’t much for the women to do at
this kind of show,’’ the Owen
Sound woman says. “They would
often get bored with the machinery
quite quickly, and would sit in here
just to talk and knit topass the time.
I was one of them!’’
Nobody remembers for sure
when the first craft show was held
at the Reunion, but former co-or
dinator Annie Mclnnes says that
when she first came to Blyth in
1973, there were only five or six
different exhibits, located in the
old agriculture show hall, located
just inside the main gate of the
j grounds.
With experience as both an
exhibitor and an organizer of the
annual Huron-Bruce Arts and
Crafts Show at Ripley, Mrs.
Mclnnes volunteered to take over
the Blyth show, promoting it to the
point that it grew out of its first
location and into larger and larger
quarters, until it filled half of the
arena floor, which until 1983, also
housed the Reunion’s popular beer
tent.
In 1983, when Mrs. Houston
took over the chairmanship of the
Craft Show, the beer tent was
moved from the arena (“The two
just don’t mix,’’she says), and the
arts and crafts exhibits gradually
took over the entire ground floor of
the building, spilling out even into
the front lobby.
“It’s just about as big as it’s
going to get now, though,” Mrs.
Houston says. “There’s no more
space, and it is as big as I want to
see it. ’’She points out that even if
there were more room, she would
try to restrict the growth of the
show, in order to keep competition
between craftsmen healthy, but
not too competitive.
“ We try not to ge t more than one
or two exhibitors making and
selling the same items, we prefer to
see them doing ‘old tyme’ crafts,
and we are very reluctant to allow
in any commercial exhibitors,
unless the product they show is
very, very special.” Some of the
displays which come into the latter
category are the marvellous dis
plays of steam-related books
shown and sold by both Haugh-
holm Books of Brucefield and
Mount Albert Junction of Mount
Albert, and the astounding display
of unusual dolls shown by Inez and
Eddie Kunkel of Port Elgin.
Mrs. Houstin begins organizing
the Craft Show in about March,
when she sends out letters and
reply forms to about 100 potential
exhibitors, including any who have
been at the Blyth show in previous
years. July 1 is the cut-off date for
replies, and if someone has not
been heard from by that time, she
will usually phone them to make
sure that they have not just missed
the deadline.
Most people are eager to return
to Blyth, but if there is still booth
space available, the chairman will
then set about finding new exhibi
tors, many of whom she already
Continued on page 19
Hood
Welcome to Blyth
and the
26th Pioneer Thresher
Reunion
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