Yesteryear Farm show draws appreciative crowds

Who says that the past has to be confined to the pages of a book? Last weekend, history was on a field and in attendees' living memories. After a year-long hiatus due to COVID-19, Longmont's Dougherty Museum held the Yesteryear Farm Show.

Judging by the packed parking lot and early morning crowds, the community welcomed the return of the three-day event.

Katherine Eskridhe from Broomfield was there with her young daughter Jo. "My dad is friends with the Doughertys who own the museum and we've been coming here for years," she said. "It's awesome that all these people have kept these traditions alive."

"We're glad to be back this year," said 91-year-old Harvey Nelson, who founded the event 36 years ago.

He spoke to us while he was comfortably seated on the top of his tractor. The enormous machine was being used as part of a demonstration of a restored 1932 hay press he'd found abandoned on a mountain ranch. The press once had trees growing through it.

Nelson, who also owns Nelson Equipment in Hygiene, talked further about the show. "We missed last year, you know. So this is great. It's just something people wouldn't see anywhere else."

On-site demonstrations help to fill in gaps between what people of the past experienced daily and what's been taught in history class. Specifically, they showed the myriad ways that gas-powered engines impacted even the smallest early 20th century communities.

One demonstrator, Ron Grandy, stood under a tent and worked a set of three gas-powered farm tools. He talked while he tinkered. "The kids don't seem as interested in this stuff any longer and it's a shame."

First, Grandy operated his well pump jack, once used in the 1920s and 30s to alleviate the need to hand work a lever for well water. He said it was left unworkable in front of his house for years until he decided to restore it.

Alongside that, he demonstrated a gas-powered corn skinner and corn meal grinder that were also used in the early 20th century. All the machines were abandoned once electricity became more widely used.

While he was aware of the pace of technological change in the past, Grandy also considers how quickly machines are evolving today. He said he hopes how people do things daily is always appreciated. "Once us old guys are gone, we're gone. When kids come around, they need to know how we used to do it. That's because [otherwise], we're losing a lost art."

He continued, "What do we do now? Kids know that when they want something, they go to the store and they buy it. It wasn't always this way. What we have here was real life. It was how everybody lived."

Another spectator was 84-year-old John Frecks. Born in the thirties, he said the equipment demonstrations reminded him of things he knew about growing up.

"I used to have these on my farm," he said, referring to Nelson's hay press."When I was a little kid, I'd go out and sit in the shocks. My sister said, 'you get outta there, there's rattlesnakes in some of those.' I jumped out and never went back in again."

Then Frecks walked over to an antique car eager to tell more stories. "This car, I have a picture of my grandma and grandpa in it. They were getting up in age then. My grandpa was born in 1856."

As he watched it, it was almost as if Freck wasn't in our century anymore. Like others, he wanted to tell his stories from the past. Finally, it was possible to ask if he was enjoying himself. He answered quickly.

"Oh yeah, you bet."