There is a story here. Savour the picture…the details…a man slogging his way to the auction wagon, a wagon of Mennonites almost hidden, a few half ton trucks, odds and ends of farm machines, and strips of ice
beneath the snow. I am so glad I rescued these four negatives. Classics.
EPISODE 452 FOUR RESCUED NEGATIVES…SOMETHING YOU WILL NEVER SEE AGAIN
alan skeoch
Oct. 17, 2021
Just an old strip of 35mmm negatives found among my slides.
“I may as well get them converted to digital among the slides…just
cost a few dollars. A test strip. I have a whole binder of these negatives taken around 1960's or 1970's just when the race to
sell old Ontario farms was about to reach fever pitch.”
“Looks rather bleak.”
“Suits the black and white format….tells a story…a sad story.”
“Each time a farm sells there are piles of things up for auction or for
the scrap yard.”
“Alan, are you the only person rescuing doomed artifacts?”
“No, but I may be the most enthusiastic,,,I like to papture the
mood of the auction as well as the treasures.”
“Treasures?”
“Art is in the eye of the beholder”
This is a belt driven cutting box…takes corn stalks and slics them
into bite sized chunks that can be piled silos as ensilage for winter
feeding. Ensilage has a smell all its own…a smell that only farmers
and cattle feel akin to. I rather liked the smell.
And here is a 1950's Farmall row crop tractor. Triangle shaped wheel
base…always seemed dangerous to me…roll over possible. And roll
overs did happen…deadly. Of course you are more interested in the scrap pile or maybe the long fenced lane to the back fields.
And here a Mennonite family arriving with a matched team of black horses. Maybe retired race horses. Why do I think that? Because
their hooves are delicate…moreso than a big team of draft horses with
hair fetlocks. Puts me in mind of Uncle FRank Freeman's team that
he harvessed up to meet the Gray Coach bus from Toronto just
to get mom, Eric and I to the farm on winter week ends.
alan skeoch
Question: Should I invest a few more dollars and rescue a lot more
of these black and whitep pictures? Otherwise they will never be seen again. Yes..I will take them to Digital Treasures…they do such a
nice job.
Note: For the first time in weeks I feel comfortable telling my stories thanks to the help of a 16 year old boy…Michael L. and his dad Rob.