It is a bad way ….
It is a bad way to start my last column for August. Somehow my TRG from this week never got to my room. Also with that a credit card statement which has always arrived on the 25th ever since I started using it, as I recall. As far as I can tell they have no real system of getting the mail to the rooms. It is kind of hit and miss day by day, which I told them is a pretty bad system.
Having said that, I don’t know if the Golden Ear of Corn has been found yet or not. I know the Golden Rutabaga has as the Cumberland Advocate came today and they ran a picture of the kids who found it.
Right now my plan to attend the Corn Festival will be to ride the Living Center bus down and hopefully the driver will find a place to park.
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On my bumming around day this week I drove down through Greenwood and kept going until I got to the 26 Road. The purpose was I wanted to go by the Nigon farm south of Greenwood. Their garden really took a turn to be outstanding this year with nine rows of flowers just waiting for someone to come and cut them. Then they have a couple of rows of sunflowers, I suppose to just dress up the garden.
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Turning the corner onto the 26 Road gave me another treat -- an Amish farmer threshing grain. Just a reminder of my younger days when it was the custom to have the threshing machine going around from farm to farm. I remember the farmer with the threshing machine had an old Case tractor on steel that he used to pull it from farm to farm and then furnish the belt power to thresh the grain.
I mentioned the old Case on steel as all the roads were still gravel so its lugs marking it up didn’t matter much. I always liked that old Case as the farmer would generally come in the spring and plow for my Dad. The tractor had big fenders which provided a great spot to sit as we made the rounds plowing.
The tractor was pretty old, but finding a replacement was another matter. I know he tried several different ones, but none seemed to have the necessary horsepower to run the thresher. Finally he ended up with a Farmall F-20, but it took some adjustment to get the governor to work properly, I think. I know it had a hand-made throttle which did the trick. I always marvel how he could pull in the yard, park where Dad wanted the straw pile and shovel a few shovels of dirt to get it level up and then away it went. All the belt and pulleys going was something to watch.
That was about it for me as my allergy to farm dust quickly brought on sneezing and coughing. So I quickly retreated to the house and helped Mom peel potatoes and get the table set for the hungry crew hauling bundles and hauling the oats to the grainery.
ÓÓÓÓÓ I mentioned the Corn Festival and the Rutabaga Festival being over. I think the Marshfield Fair was this past weekend too. But the granddaddy of State Fairs also started last Thursday and runs through Labor Day. That’s the Minnesota State Fair, which has been around since 1855. That was three years before Minnesota became a state and for the first few years moved from town to town.
In the 1870s-1880s, it was a battle between Minneapolis and St. Paul, both wanting to host it. In 1885 it got settled. Ramsey County donated their Poor Farm, which consisted of 210 acres. Later that acreage got increased to 322 acres, which it still is today.
The fair only missed a few years. In 1861-62 the Civil War caused it to miss, then in 1893 it missed as the World Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago. It missed in 1945 because of World War II and 1946 for the polio epidemic.Then in 2020 COVID-19 caused it to miss.
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A few of the older buildings have been replaced, but many were constructed in the late 1930s under the Work Progress Administration (WPA).
One of the big attractions when I first started going was Machinery Hill, back in the days when IH tractors and machinery seemed to be the king of the hill.
I was talking to someone the other day and I mentioned the Pront-O-Pups. A hot dog on a stick. I discovered if you started right and bought one, by the time it took to get it eaten, there was another stand.
Who could resist?
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The other day a letter arrived in the mail. It was carefully addressed to me here at the Rehab Center saying they love my column and the fact I hope to live to be 100. The problem was they spent all that effort addressing the envelope and writing a five page letter. Unfortunately they forgot their return address. Normally under those circumstances I would have tossed it. However they made some claims which sort of hurt and picked on me for a few other things.
First of all they attacked my thinking on voting and suggested many of the people who I disagreed with are paying for me to stay at the Clark County Health Center.
Just so you know I am one of those people who pay the going rate of $275 a day. That is until all my savings are gone, which means I can only leave my kids with lots of memories. Period. Well, maybe not. One of the kids thought she could move in with me.
Another strange claim was the January 6 attack on the Capitol was a farce. Are they saying all the news programs and special congressional hearings are just a put on? Seems to me I read an article in one of the local papers where a gentleman from Colby even told of his experiences going out there. Is that a farce too?
