Great fun at a tractor show

When Cliff and I arrived at Adrian (one of our favorite annual tractor shows), I followed him for awhile.  Then, as usual, I told him I had my phone, so he could call me if necessary.  And I headed off to see and do things I like more than Cliff does.  Don't get me wrong, I love the old tractors.  But there are always things I enjoy that he doesn't.  Like this, for instance.

An old church.  There's information telling where it came from, but I wasn't that interested in the specifics.  My knees don't like a lot of walking, and I needed a place to sit down in the shade.  

As I approached the door I heard singing.  Yes, they were singing the good, old-time hymns.  Man, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.  I opened a hymn book and began singing my alto part at the top of my voice.  It was GREAT.  Mansion Over the Hilltop, In The Garden, and others I love.  I think we sang perhaps half a dozen before the time was up and the lady leading the songs said, "Come back next year."  (::note to self:: Get an earlier start next year.)

Next door to the church was an old school house similar to the one I attended in Iowa, only larger.  

Then I stepped outside the school and looked up the street of the little village...

And down the street.  

This is how all screen doors looked when I was a kid, only some were fancier.

Then I walked into sort of a re-creation of a long-ago general store, with other things thrown in.  I met a wonderful 86-year-old lady and discussed how much small towns have changed since our respective childhoods.  What a sweetheart she was.

This was the first artifact (?) I saw, once inside.

After visiting with the sweet lady for awhile (I wish I'd gotten a picture.  She looked like everybody's grandma), I went outside and tried to call Cliff.  Guess what?  No signal.  Well, I figured if I just sat on a bench on Main street, eventually Cliff would come along.  I finally got his phone to ring, but it went straight to voice mail and I told him where I was.  I sat on a bench with a couple of very nice gentlemen who, for some reason, seemed to think I was funny.  At one point a young man walked past eating home-made ice cream from a dish, and I said, "Where did you get that ice cream?  Because I need some of that!"

He pointed the way.  I knew the day was going to be perfect when I got to the head of the line and found out they had all sorts of fruit cobbler to go with the ice cream.  Somebody pinch me!  I must be dreaming.

Cliff showed up while I was still eating my ice cream (with cherry cobbler), so of course I directed him to the source of my sweet snack.  He chose blackberry cobbler, by the way.  

The Parade of Power started soon after that.  First came the steam engines.

We didn't stay for the whole parade, but our next-door neighbor, Randy, was there with his big Farmall tractor.  Cliff said we'd wait until he came by, then we'd go home.

Farmalls (and Internationals) were the featured tractors, so several of them came along before our neighbor showed up.  Many of them were hauling children, and in some cases, youngsters were driving the tractors.  

And then came our neighbor, Randy.  Cliff loves this tractor... it's unique because it was a four-wheel-drive before four-wheel-drive tractors became so popular.  It's sort of rare, so it's no doubt worth quite a lot to collectors.  I mentioned to a lady sitting next to me that Randy's our neighbor; she asked if these guys actually use these tractors on their farms.  No, they don't.  They have newer tractors to use in the fields.  

Shortly after this, we came home.  I enjoyed this day a lot, and I hardly looked at any tractors at all, while I was there.  There's more to some of these shows than just tractors.

Peace.