“A SUCKER BORN EVERY MINUTE”
THE 2019 STEAM SHOW AT SHERWOOD HUMES FARM
alan skeoch
August 30, 2019
ONE DAY in the early 1960’s my Uncle Frank Freeman dropped by…
.”Alan a bunch of farmers
are showing their old farm machines over on a farm near here, do you want to come?”
“Thanks for asking me Uncle Frank…love to come.”
And I have not missed a Steam Era show in nearly 60 years. Marjorie is less enthralled
and has missed a few of the shows. I do not know why. This year the show was
in a bit of turmoil as the Milton Farm Museum site bumped up the rent five times…FIVE TIMES!
SO the organizers made a fast decision to hold the show on the farm of Gladys and Sherwood
Hume.
Take a gander and see what you like best.
Guess what I liked best.
Have you every heard of the PARACAS SKULL? If you have not then
you are about to be mystified as I was.
Our first tractor was an International Formal A…like this little beauty. We were so proud of it. Bought it from Al Fox when he
retired and then proceeded to make a mess of the farm fields bye dragging an ancient single furrow plow up and down. I drove
while dad held the plow handles and called me a ‘damn fool’. It was quite a wonderful few weeks. Then winter came and we
parked the Farmall A behind the farm house. In theory it would be ready for spring planting. That never happened. I assumed
the radiator was filled with anti freeze. Wrong! WRONG! It was filled with water and one herd cold snap was enough to crack
the engine block. Scrap tractor resulted…ruined. As dad said, I was a damn fool.
I really enjoyed these people who set up their tent promoting ‘UNSOLVED MYSTERIES OF THE WORLD’. The little tent was jammed with wonderful things most of
which were hard to believe. Like the elongated silver looking human skull. “When found in Peru, many thought this was the skull of aliens from outer space”
It is called the ‘[PARACAS SKULL’. Now that aliens from space explanation was very hard to believe. As was the comment that the skull was a copy
of the original which was destroyed in the London Blitz of World War II. But the story was amusing. just for fun I punched up Paracas Skull on my search
engine. There are dozens of entries. Was there a lost tribe of humans with skulls like these? Find our for yourself. Stop laughing and do some research.
Lighten up…your underwear is twisted.
Inside the mystery tent there is a big box promoting the GREATEST LIVING
WONDER OF ALL.
“Brace yourself, sir, you are about to see one of
the great wonders of the world.”
And she opened the doors of the box. I leaned over and looked in.
Surprise!!!
Look who is sitting on the back of Dave’s truck. Cute.
Why do people go to Fairs like the Steam Era Show?
“Too have a good time…and we are devoted to that.”
“Some of our strange and funny mysteries are even based on fact.”
I spent two hours at the Steam Show. Guess where I spent most of my time.
Just before I left I noticed this lady and her dog sitting on this wagon.
“What are you waiting for…a tractor to pull you?”
“No, I’m waiting for my husband…pulling us around the
Steam Show is his job.”
I waited and watched for a few minutes….no sign of the husband.
Now here is a gem. Two people with many years gap between them, both enthralled
by this ancient Massey Harris tractor.
ALAN SKEOCH
August 30, 2019