HomeMy WebLinkAbout30th Annual Huron Pioneer Thresher & Hobby Association 1991 Reunion, 1991-09-04, Page 8PAGE A-8. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1991.
'foneer ndfiresfier IRgiimon '91
Reunion just kept growing as more added
Continued from page A-7
more and more people came to take part.
Someone suggested music should be
added and the old fashioned fiddle music
became a natural addition. For many years
Earl and Martha Heywood provided
entertainment. Today, especially this year
when the CKNX Bam Dance Road Show
will be on hand, the event is as much a
fiddlers' reunion as a thresher reunion,
someone noted recently. There's the bam
dance Wednesday night, the fiddlers' jam
session Thursday night, the Jamboree on
Friday night plus the fiddle contests, step
dancing and daily shows at the second
stage. It's enough to wear out a toe
tapper's toes.
Along the way it was felt there needed
to be something for women to do while
their husbands admired the old equipment
so a craft show was started. At first it just
took up part of the arena floor in the old
Blyth arena but today the show takes the
entire ice surface plus the lobby area and
spills over to the outside area as well.
Over the years the Association acquired
its own sawmill and that remains one of
the most popular attractions at the
Thresher Reunion.
Antique and classic cars were added to
the show and today the car show at the
Thresher Reunion is one of the largest in
the area.
In later years a flea market has been
started where people can get parts for old
equipment or just old-fashioned materials.
Camping came along and became
bigger and bigger with a tented village
growing up each year that boosts the
population of Blyth.
Over the years the fairgrounds
themselves have grown as the Association
donated the money to the Village of Blyth
to purchase land from a nearby farmer.
All this grew from that first meeting in
Simon Hallahan's house. Back then most
of the members had been threshers
themselves. Simon had run a threshing
outfit for Gcordie Jordan for a few years,
then for 15 years was with the Silver
Creek Threshing Syndicate, a gang made
up of members of the Hallahan family.
When he started out, Simon recalled
several years ago, there wasn't much stook
threshing. In those days farmers hauled
their sheaves to the bam and stored them
in the mow until a threshing crew could
arrive. It was a dirty business when the
threshing was done: sheaves were taken
out of one mow and passed out to the
threshing machine, then the straw was
blown back into a straw mow in another
part of the bam. Men working inside the
barn would be spitting black, dusty
residues for days. Work began at 6:30 a.m.
and continued until dark. For the threshing
crews, who moved from one farm to
another, the harvest season could start in
late July and continue until November.
By about 1935, Simon recalled, stook
threshing had become popular. Sheaves
were no longer hauled into a bam but were
loaded on wagons and taken right to the
threshing machine. Working outside in the
fresh air and sunshine made it a lot easier
to get men to help with the harvest, Simon
recalled. Those harvests also made a
neighbourhood more neighbourly, he said.
Today, with the faster pace of life, with
each farmer having a combine or hiring
someone to do the combining, neighbours
don't visit each other as much as in the old
days, he feels.
That same social aspect was an
important part of the early days of the
Thresher Reunion loo, he recalled on the
occasion of the 25th anniversary of the
Reunion in 1986. It was easy to get work
done by calling a "bee" and the members
would turn out to lend a hand. There was
lots of work to-do on the grounds back
then. The old grandstand had to be torn
down. Years later, the old agricultural
show hall was tom down and replaced by
a modern storage bam at the back of the
lot.
There was a social side to even the
business meetings in those days. After the
business had been attended to, they would
adjourn to Frank Wong's Huron Grill (now
the Village Restaurant) for food. Simon
also recalled many happy times spent in
the old race horse bam at the fairgrounds
where the members would party.
In the early years there were no
memberships and bookkeeping was so
elementary, records were kept on the stubs
in the cheque books.
The wives of the threshermen provided
real threshers' meals in the early years
Congratulations on your
30th Anniversary
Chauncey’s
hairstyling Inc.
• Expert Cutting*
• European Perms & Tints
• All Hair Care Products
• U.V.A. Suntanning
Chances are — you'll love it.
Queen St., Blyth, Ont. 523-9722
when the reunion was a smaller event than
it is today.
Many of the people who shared those
early memories are gone now, people like
Hugh Chisholm, Harold Turner, John
Hallahan and Dr. Charles Toll who
brought his band to the Reunion for many
years. A few, like Simon himself, Dan
Hallahan and Russell Wilson of Blyth,
remain to tell the stories of those early
years.
The men who knew the life of the
threshing gangs first hand are becoming
rare and a new, younger generation is
helping keep the reunion alive. But people
like Simon Hallahan can sit back and
realize something big started back in his
farm home in 1962.
News and
features for
northern Huron
Read The
Citizen
Congratulations
to the Pioneer
Thresher & Hobby
Association on their
30th Reunion
$
Eighty Eight Royale
THE 1992 MODELS
HAVE ARRIVED
While you are in the area visit
your friendly Chev-Olds dealer.
"Special G.M.A.C. Rates"
J.L.
McCutcheon motors
Rural Voice
THE MAGAZINE FOR THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY
Original, entertaining, informative
feature articles and editorial for the
whole farming community.
THE MAGAZINE FOR THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY
THE RURAL VOICE
ONE YEAR $16.05 □ ($1.05 GST) TWO YEARS $26.75 □ ($1.75 GST)
included Included
Please enclose payment
NAME:
ADDRESS:
LTD.POSTAL CODE:
"Serving Brussels and area for over 40 years"
BRUSSELS 887-6856
SIGNATURE:
Mall to: THE RURAL VOICE, Box 429, Blyth, Ontario. NOM 1H0