An anthropologist at the History Conference
Last weekend (4/18-4/19), I went to the Tulare Tractor Show with Mom and Dad. Pushed Mom around the dust in the wheelchair, which was difficult to get rolled but not bad at all after that, except for the metal-wheeled tractors, who drove about in the dirt making crop circles and causing the wheelchair no end of trouble. Of course, I explored the swap meet, and went to the tractor parade first off, when we got there. This was as usual a wonderful event, minus the balky donkeys and blaring national anthem of our first visit. This was entertaining because it drove the police horse absolutely nuts, and the donkeys went crazy entirely. So they didn’t do that this year. They did, however, have the same announcer, who, because of the size of the parade route is forever describing something just around or behind of what you are currently seeing. Makes things interesting.
At the swap meet, Mom missed a Singer Featherweight Firearm, and I missed out ofn a book of shop notes, including blacksmithing drawings, but as I inquired about the price, and then laid the item down waiting for the price, as the person I asked didn’t know it, despite best efforts, I can’t complain too much. The price was probably out of my range anyway. Mom found a small, excellent, aluminum fruit press for me for an wonderful price, though I had to poke about it until its owner explained that the plate was put on upside down. Right side up, it works very well, although different from the press I currently have, in that the handle detaches from the plate and is driven down by having a full press of fruit instead. Mom says maybe we can press cheese in it, which would be great, as our last actual cheese press, although reputable, was a Rube Goldberg contraption of wood and bricks for the weight, which was sooner of later going to land on someone’s foot. This press might work better. When I read about modern alumninum presses, one web page says that the small holes in the press means you don’t need to line the press with a pillow case in cheese cloth
In the tractor parade, the finish this time was long lines of older semi trucks, most painted robin blue and most from the Hays Truck Musuem (truckmuseum.org) which we have visited in the past. It was fascinating to see how stylish some of the older truck hoods were and how comparitively short their trailers were to modern semis.
On Sunday, the fair was much less — many vendors had left. We finished the last of the swap meet and saw the engines and as much of the tractors as possible. The man from Quartzite was there with his hit and miss pipe cutter, and I got into a few conversations with some folks about where their engines