Steam is King!

When I was a kid, I lived in a small town.  A very small town.  Population-not-exceeding-120 small town.

When I grew up, I escaped that small town to move to a big city with lots of career opportunities and entertainment and culture.

Well, kind of.

The only thing that ever happened in my small town was a Threshing Bee.  Sounds pretty small town, doesn't it?  It is.  But, honestly, it's one of the things I really love about that small town, still.


In this small town, during the Threshing Bee (pronounced "Thrashing Bee" in this small town), people sit patiently to watch a two hour parade of tractors and old cars.

Not a John Deere, but someone loves it, anyway.

In this small town, during the Threshing Bee, the local 4H chapter raises money by selling lunch to dusty folks who've spent the morning talking about the weather, the beautiful John Deere, and the upcoming harvest.  The lunch consists of ham, canned corn, wet potatoes au gratin, a white dinner roll, all you can drink lemonade, and slices of fresh tomato and cucumber.

Oh, and home made pie.  Real home made pie.  Even rhubarb pie, which makes no excuse for its tartness with the addition of apologetic strawberries.


In this small town, people pile on wooden bleachers to watch people compete to see whose tractor can pull the most.

This tractor tried to get away.
You can tell it's feral by the flames.

There is a craft building full of handmade quilts on one side, and various antique household items on the other.  There is a toy building with toys you might find some version of 50 years ago or today.  There is an old one-room school house, complete with desks, books, and a school marm.

Here and there you can find pictures of this small town when it wasn't so small.  When it had a Main Street full of store fronts, an opera house, and a Waldorf.

I try, once a year, to escape being grown up in the city to the small town during the Threshing Bee.  To see the town, to see the people, and to see the spectacle that is the Threshing Bee.

Especially the steam engines.