The annual Highland County Antique Machinery Show at Rocky Fork Lake got underway Friday morning with the traditional reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance, and organization Vice President Tim Luschek told The Times-Gazette there is something for every member of the family during the weekend event.
“There will be about every make and model of antique tractor and engines, some dating back to the turn of the century,” he said. “Of course, there’ll be lots of food out there and we’ll have a silent auction, raffle tickets that’ll be sold all day every day, and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we’ll have live music, too.”
Saturday from 8-10 p.m. the Cantrell family band will perform their unique sound of old country, bluegrass and folk, and following Sunday morning’s opening ceremony, Luschek said the Burbage Family/Back to the Cross will perform. Afterward, the gospel group New Again will on stage at 1 p.m.
He said the show will feature tractors, engines, a flea market, lots of food and cold drinks, contests and entertainment for everyone in the family, and that each morning’s opening ceremony starts with the Pledge of Allegiance.
In addition to the tractor and engine displays, Luschek said there will be fun and games for children and adults alike, a kiddie tractor pull Saturday at noon with trophies, ribbons and hats that will be preceded by the garden tractor pull at 10 a.m.
Event-goers can walk around the older tractors on display, Luschek said, with some looking like they’re still being used on the farm and others restored to showroom quality. They can watch demonstrations of how the older equipment worked and what it was designed to do.
Two local men, Ken Friedman and Frank Everhart, both of Greenfield, showed off a “Southpin Halfbreed” and other equipment that the 82-year-old Everhart said came from what he described as “tapped out oil wells” in Sisterville, W. Va. dating back to the dawn of the 20th century.
Friedman divides his time between his love of old farm equipment and serving as president of the Greenfield Antique Car Club, which will be having its annual show on July 20 in Greenfield as part of the Greene Countrie Towne Festival.
He said the event attractes antique machinery enthusiasts from across the country, pointing out a campsite not far away where machinery was on display from an aficionado that drove in from Arizona.
Luschek said the event stirs up a feelings of nostalgia for those like him that love classic farm machinery and the other older equipment, and that it is interesting to see how simple they were designed, yet sometimes employed brute force to get the job done.
He confessed to being one of the many “Lynchburg Luschek’s” and said he used to farm about 400 acres. He said that with his affiliation with the antique machinery show, it allows him to step back and see how things used to be done on the farm.
“It’s amazing to me as to how far things have come from when this equipment was made until now,” he said. “I’d love to go back in time and use some of this machinery on the farm to get a feel for what it was like and how much work they had to do back then.”
This year’s antique machinery show will move to the Highland County Fairgrounds next year, Luschek said. This year, it will wrap up with the tractor parade at 3 p.m. Sunday and a raffle drawing immediately afterward.
Admission for adults is $3 and children under 12 are admitted free with a paying adult.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
