65th annual Thresher Reunion another success for association
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
In the long and storied history of the Huron Pioneer Threshers and Hobby Association (HPTHA) Reunion in Blyth, the only thing as reliable as the antique engines is the near guarantee that the weekend will be punctuated by at least a little bad weather.
But not all traditions need to carry on forever - just ask the HPTHA’s outgoing president, Laura McDonald. “I’m blown away, honestly!” she exclaimed. “I wished for three days of great weather, which never happens, and I actually got my wish!”
Whatever the function, good weather tends to result in great crowds, and that goes double for an agriculturally-oriented event like Blyth’s annual Threshers Reunion. “It makes all the difference for our show, with so many things being outside,” McDonald pointed out. “I’m still kind of getting over it all! On Saturday, I was walking around the grounds, and I was amazed - not just by the amount of people, but what a wide range of different people that were there. People of all ages came out - the young families, the next generation of kids, a lot of grandparents - even people my own age!”
The Citizen can confirm McDonald’s accounting of events - 65 years after the first Threshers Reunion, the Blyth Campground was indeed populated with visitors with vastly varied levels of versedness in the field of vintage farm equipment. “I talked to a lot of people that have been coming for years, and a lot of people that told me it was their first time there,” McDonald recounted. “And they also said they loved it, and that they’ll be coming back!”
When McDonald first took up the mantle of HPTHA president two years ago, one of her top priorities was refreshing Threshers by adding more activities that appeal to young people, like Huron County’s favourite travelling troupe of weight-dragging entertainers, the Stoneboat Pullers.
This past weekend, it quickly became clear that this mission is already succeeding - the kids turned out in force to soak up some sunshine amidst the marvelous machines that made their lives possible. “It was a little overwhelming,” McDonald confessed. “They really ramped up the pedal tractor pull - we had over 50 contestants, when we’re used to getting maybe 10. It was really cool to see all the kids come in and participate.”
Shoring up the HPTHA’s youth contingent is, in McDonald’s estimation, a win-win scenario for all involved. In order to secure the future of the reunion, fresh enthusiasm from a new generation of steam show stewards is essential.
But increasing youth engagement isn’t just about recruiting future volunteers - the Thresher Reunion also offers young visitors the chance to learn the hands-on way - by immersing themselves in a realm of real, living history. They get to experience the sights, sounds and machinery of the past in a tangible way - an increasingly rare opportunity for kids raised in an increasingly digital society.
In her experience, the preservation of agricultural history at the reunion extends far beyond the equipment itself - it’s also a place to swap the personal stories, unique skills and near-forgotten lore that accompanies every antique engine on the grounds. “I get such a thrill out of hearing all those stories!” McDonald exclaimed. “If you stop and talk to any of the owners of these machines, they’ve always got a whole story as to how it came into their possession. Every piece of equipment seems to have a story… I think that’s why people love the reunion so much.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more storied farm equipment manufacturer than this year’s featured heritage brand - International Harvester (IH). Even among the cacophonous coterie of collected equipment criss-crossing the grounds, the eye-catching exhibition of IH equipment stood out. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many red tractors in my life,” McDonald divulged. “Seeing that whole baseball diamond just filled with a sea of red is probably something I’ll never see again in my entire life.”
In a rapidly changing agricultural landscape, McDonald sees the preservation of antique machinery as an important reminder of where food comes from. “Agriculture is under the spotlight a lot lately,” she pointed out. “There’s a lot of development. We’re losing a lot of farmland, and people don’t really understand why we even need it. They don’t always know where their food comes from, and I think that’s a large part of why we preserve this history is to teach people about how it all came to be.”
That lesson can be hard to appreciate when modern machinery has compressed the effort. “Now, you see these huge farming operations where one tractor can do a whole field in an hour, but here, you can understand that years ago, it took farmers a week to do that same field.”
During her remarks at the opening ceremony of the 65th Threshers Reunion, McDonald told the crowd that her thoughts kept turning to the HPTHA’s founding farmers. “I keep reflecting back to that first group of guys sitting around, thinking that they wanted to put this together,” she mused. “And I wonder what they would think if they were here, and saw it was still going after 65 years… I really hope that we made them proud.”