Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association Thresher Reunion, 1987-09-09, Page 23THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. 19*7. PAGE A-23.
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Up at 5 a.m
to fire up the engine
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threshonefarmer’s grain. That
was in the days when farmers took
all their sheaves into the barn after
the grain had been cut and dried for
a few days in the stook.
In the 1930’s the move to stook
threshing came in pretty strong,
and after 1935 most of the
threshing was when the sheaves
were taken from the stooks, loaded
on wagons and brought to the
separator for threshing.
It was more than a difference in
doing things, Dan says. It changed
the whole feeling around the
threshing gang. Threshing was
best in the barn threshing days.
Without the worry about the
weather holding things up, people
were more relaxed. If it did rain for
a few minutes, the crew might have
to shut down but was ready to go
again soon after the rain stopped.
With stook threshing where a rain
could shut down the entire opera
tion until the grain had a chance to
dry, there was more stress.
“In barn threshing people seem
ed to have lost of time after supper
to talk,” he says. It would be
nothing for people to sit around for
an hour at a time visiting. That
aspect of things is gone in farming
today, he says. Today the expense
issohighinfarmingthat people
don’t have the time to slow down
and enjoy life.
A famous part of threshing was
always the mealtime. In a two-
month-long threshing season a
gang got to sample food from a lot
of different kitchens but there was
always plenty of good food, he
recalls. Nobody ever wanted to see
you go away near a mealtime.
“You were always used awful
good ”, he said. Y ou always slept in
the house where you finished up at
night and the women always got up
early for meals and gave early
suppers.
While he’s been driving Warner
Andrews big Case western engine
in recent years he’s worked with
many engines over the years. He
fired a Waterloo, a White and a Bell
engineatone time and another.
The nicest engines to handle were
the Waterloo and Bell engines, he
recalls.
It was only natural with his
interests and background that Dan
would be there at the organization
meeting for the first Thresher
Reunion on May 31, 1961 at Simon
Hallahan’s house down the road
from his own farm. He’s never
missed a show since, he says.
There were four steam engines at
the first thresher reunion. There
were 16 engines last year. It’s been
growing every year, he says,
pointing tothe purchase of five
extra acres this year for more
parking and camping space.
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Besides providing the grain for
threshing he helped out in the early
years making sure the engines had
wood and water. He always had
good co-operation from every
body, he says. All the free help has
been the key to the success of the
show over the years, he says.
Each year brings back memor
ies. “There are only a couple of us
old fellows left,” he says. While he
showsprideinthe growth of the
Reunion he misses the relaxed
atmosphere that has been lost as
the reunion grew. The first shows
were more of a meeting, of a chance
to get together and talk often long
into the night, he recalls. The
bigger the event gets, the more
time it takes to run the show and the
less time is left for visiting.
He recalls the early years when
the old fair shed near the entrance
of the grounds was turned into a
banquet hall and the ladies of the
Agricultural Society put on an old
fashioned threshermen’s meal. It
was just like sitting down to a meal
with a threshing gang, he says.
Today the dinners still take place
but in the more modern setting of
the community centre hall in the
arena.
Were the old days on the farm
good days. Dans says that if he was
younger he’d buy a team of horses
and go back farming like the
Amish, just for the enjoyment of it.
(He sold his last threshing machine
to an Amish farmer at St. Helens).
Even if that can’t be done, the
Threshing Reunion provides a
touch of the old feelings each year.
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Books on antique tractors,
BOOKSijas engines .steam engines, cars,
and much more.
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& TRAVI
Visit our booth
at the 26th Annual
Threshermen's Reunion
See our miniature live working
steam engines, steam tractors
and lumber wagons
foroldermodels
DECALS oftractorsand
gasengines.
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