Days past revived during Fair week
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Jon Rickman drives his 1935 “Johnny popper” two-cylinder tractor during Saturday’s Nodaway County Fair parade. The entry, which included Rickman’s 100-year-old wagon, paid tribute to Rotary International, which is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year
The theme of this year’s Nodaway County Fair, “Let the Fun Shine In,” may have been based on the 1960s “hippie” musical “Hair,” but the vibe, to use a bit of hippie slang, was definitely rooted in earlier decades, the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, an era that many folks these days view as something of a golden age for life in the rural Midwest.
County fairs, of course, are events that encourage people to scurry into the past, to change the oil in granddad’s old tractor and go after the blue ribbon with grandma’s recipe for peach cobbler. It is a given that these annual summer exhibitions are held for the express purpose of reminding all of us who we are and where we came from.
Attending Saturday’s parade and hanging out on the square afterward was like watching a weaver craft the warp and woof of a shared past, a kaleidoscope of small farms, Main Street businesses, families and good neighbors that over the long years have forged the lives we still live today.
At fair time, everyone goes up to the attic and brings the best of themselves downstairs for all to see.
A few of the highlights:
There was Gerald (Buster) Newberry, of Parnell, who chauffeured Little Mr. and Miss Nodaway County, Owen Coleman and Haydenn Hensley, in his gleaming black 1953 Chevrolet convertible — the one with the fuzzy dice hung over the rear-view mirror and the plastic hula dancer on the dashboard.
And — just to keep everything divisible by five — Jon Rickman returned to the parade this year at the wheel of his 1935 “brass tag” John Deere Model B tractor, hauling a 100-year-old wagon that served as the 2015 Rotary float.
Rickman’s tractor turns 80 this year, and Rotary, founded in 1905, turns 110. Locally, the service organization, which has about 30 members, has long served Maryville by funding scholarships, providing dictionaries to gradeschoolers, sponsoring Boy Scout Troop 74, donating Christmas and Easter Hams to the local food pantry and generally ponying up whenever folks need a helping hand.
Fair time is also a reminder that churches play a big role in the life of rural communities, and one of the more whimsical entries in Saturday’s parade was a train filled with children crafted from plastic 50-gallon drums built by members of The Bridge, an evangelical faith community whose worship center, a refurbished furniture store, is located on South Main Street.
Maryville High School junior Kory Stuart, who helped fabricate the rolling daisy chain of barrel cars along with his dad, Kevin Stuart, said the contraption took a couple of months to put together along with “a lot of blood, sweat and tears.”
Each car was outfitted with an old metal tractor seat that was probably 40 or 50 years older than Kevin.
“We have a lot of junk,” he said. “There’s an old hay barn full of a bunch of stuff, and I think we got them out of there.”
Later in the day, as the band Leland’s Road set up for Saturday night’s rock ’n’ roll show, and balding, middle-aged men admired vintage motorcycles parked in front of City Hall, Dave Mires settled into his folding chair and watched his 1930s one-cylinder engine freeze ice cream.
Mires, who works at Federal Mogul and raises Belgian draft horses, said the old gasoline motor, an International model LB, was used by farmers, service stations and other small businesses toward the end of the Great Depression for everything from grinding chicken feed to crushing ice.
Their most common application, he said, was pumping water from windmill-powered wells on days when the wind didn’t blow.
Hooked up to a five-gallon churn, Mires said the motor will freeze a batch of ice cream in about 45 minutes, a little longer when the weather is hot. Saturday’s average was about an hour.
“I like anything old like that,” he said. “I’m attracted to things that are simple. I know that technology makes things easier, but I just like things that work.”
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Dave Mires was taking it easy on the square Saturday while watching his vintage gasoline motor power a five-gallon ice cream freezer during the Nodaway County Fair.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
This vintage 1940s Harley-Davidson motorcycle, foreground, was among the street machines on display Saturday during the Nodaway County Fair.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Gerald (Buster) Newberry, of Parnell, chauffeurs Little Mr. and Miss Nodaway County, Owen Coleman and Haydenn Hensley, in his 1953 Chevrolet convertible.
TOYN BROWN/DAILY FORUM
This kiddie train fabricated from plastic 50-gallon drums was one of a couple of entries in Saturday’s Chamber of Commerce county fair parade entered by The Bridge, an evangelical church with a worship center on South Main Street. Bridge Kidz, the church’s youth ministry, serves about 20 youngsters from Maryville and the surrounding area.
