HomeMy WebLinkAbout31st Annual Huron Pioneer Thresher & Hobby Association 1992 Reunion, 1992-09-09, Page 22PAGE A-22. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1992.
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In threshing times, talk was entertainment
Continued from A-21
who knew it was better to pace themselves
for a whole day's work instead of rushing
across the field, seeing who could finish a
row first, as was often the case with
teenagers.
Today, I suppose, we'd be so addicted to
prepackaged entertainment that we'd all be
wearing Walkmans while we stooked but
then the entertainment was talk, talk about
the old days, talk about what this or that
farmer was doing what to improve his
yields, talk about girls (for the young ones)
and for everybody, more time than probably
should be, talk about gossip.
It was like that when it came time to bring
the sheaves in for threshing. Aside from the
steady purr of the tractor, there was little
noise involved so conversations could still
be carried on. There was subtle interaction
between the generations as well. The fathers
and grandfathers would shake their heads as
they watched the young bucks competing to
see who could pitch the heaviest loads up
onto the wagon. For the young men, lifting
an entire stook or five or six sheaves on the
end of a pitchfork to the top of a high load
was an envied show of growing strength. To
the elders, it was a sign of young foolishness
and they'd wam the day was going to be a
long one.
The contrast between the modem rural life
and the life of that time seems to begin
directly with the decline of things like the
threshing gangs, wood bees, silo filling and
other activities that brought people together
in rural communities.
With the coming of more and more one-
man operated farm machines, it was no
Bygone Days
The annual Huron Pioneer Thresher Reunion gives visitors the chance to socialize lust like the old days. For many it is
a nostalgic occasion as they remember the days gone by.
longer necessary for farmers to get together
to accomplish their work. Today each farmer
works away in his own little world.
Opportunities for neighbours to get together
are fewer and fewer and often events must
be purposely planned in order to bring a
neighbourhood together.
Ironically, in view of the fact we can now
instantly get telephone calls from the other
side of the world or watch live television
from space ships, farm families have never
been so isolated from their neighbours since
the early pioneer days. The sadness of this
becomes most evident when a farmer gets in
economic trouble as many have in recent
years and carries the whole burden himself
because neighbours aren't close enough to be
confidants anymore.
Just as tragic is the fact that if one farmer
does something desperate, his neighbours
are often the most surprised because they
didn't even know he was in trouble.
It's unlikely farmers will ever go back to
threshing gangs or any of the other ways of
farming that brought neighbours together. If
not, however, they must find other ways of
bringing neighbours together, of knowing
that each is there for the other if needed.
Our very best wishes to the
31st Annual Thresher Reunion
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