HomeMy WebLinkAbout31st Annual Huron Pioneer Thresher & Hobby Association 1992 Reunion, 1992-09-09, Page 21When threshing changed,
country society changed
BY KEITH ROULSTON
Looking back 35 years now, as a member
of a generation that grew up at a time when
the harvesting of grain changed forever, I
can see that it wasn't just a technological
change when combines replaced threshing
machines, but a change of an entire way of
life.
Both the threshing machine and the
combine played a part in my early life. I can
remember the excitement in my really young
days, of the news that the threshing machine
was arriving that day. Even as a teenager I
worked during the summer on some of the
last farms in our township that stuck with the
old ways. In between came the period when
my own family switched from the threshing
machine to the combine.
As a member of a family that often had
fewer possessions than our neighbours, the
arrival of that Massey-Harris combine on
our farm was a real moment of pride for me.
It wasn't new or shiny. It had already lived a
useful life on somebody else's farm before
we got it. But at a time when we considered
any car less than 10 years of age “new”, the
machine was an exciting new addition to the
farm. It was made more so because several
of our neighbours still were “old fashioned”
and using the threshing machine.
I was pretty proud when I got to ride
around on the combine, standing on the little
fenced-in platform with my dad, taking the
bags of grain away from the twin grain
spouts, tying them, then sliding them down
the chute to the ground where they'd be
picked up later with a wagon. It wasn't very
efficient because it still took my uncle to
drive the tractor pulling the machine and my
dad to bag the grain but it still used a lot
fewer people than threshing.
And yet, once the novelty wore off, I
found I envied my best friend who lived on
the “backward” farm across the road where
they still threshed their grain.
In fact my friend's father ran a really old-
fashioned operation. Every year he cut his
grain with a binder (in my earliest memories
I think he still used a team of horses);, then
stooked it and then loaded it on wagons and
transferred it, using slings, into the barn
where it would sit until the threshing gang
arrived, often after they'd already done all
the other farmers who threshed straight out
of the stook.
My first earnings were made helping
spread those sheaves around the mow on my
friend's farm, the sheaf often being as big as
I was.
It was my introduction to being part of the
threshing gang. Later I would drive the
tractor while the men picked up the sheaves
in the fields and the load was built higher
and higher behind me. Later still I drove the
tractor for the first step in harvest, cutting
the grain. I learned to fix the cantankerous
binder (perhaps the last piece of machinery I
could make logical sense out of).
As I grew older the sense of comradeship
the operation of threshing brought grew as I
took my place with the gang stooking or
loading wagons (threshing disappeared from
the scene before I became senior enough to
be around the threshing machine).
Stooking was the most fun when there was
a group of people working their way across a
field. It was often a leisurely activity
especially if there were older hands present
Continued on A-22
Stooking The Field
Gathering the sheaves and setting them upright in the field to dry was just
one of the many tedious chores involved in the early days of threshing.
Clinton Community
Credit Union
Wishes the Huron Pioneer Thresher and
Hobby Association great success on the 31st
Annual Reunion in Blyth.
Proud to be working with the people
of Blyth and area since 1952.
374 Main St. S.
Exeter
235-0640
48 Ontario St.
Clinton
482-3467
Best Wishes to the Huron
Pioneer Threshers and visitors
at the 31st reunion
Bill Melick
((Boiieridi) Ob.
ESTABLISHED SINCE 1961
COMPLETE COLLISION
REPAIRS & PAINTING
440 Bayfield Rd. GODERICH 524-9181
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:
POSTAL CODE:
SIGNATURE:
Mail to: THE RURAL VOICE, Box 429, Blyth, Ontario. N0M 1H0