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| Leroy Brady and Danny Oldroid effectively demonstrate how to process corn and wheat and even par apples with vintage machinery. |
Color Country Antique Machinery Association Volunteers
As spectators at the CCAMA events, we see the rugged exterior of men and women who drive these tractors. The more I photograph and interview these CCAMA members the more I see their humanity. The more I attend the CCAMA events, meetings, potlucks, caravans, and parades, the more I learn.
The Cotton Days Field Trip in Washington, Utah, was no different. I left a changed person. Volunteers from CCAMA demonstrated nothing less than humanness, patience, and kindness, while sharing and shedding light on what it was like when the city of Washington began. They manned their stations prepared with visuals and hands on projects and artifacts. They spoke clearly, slowly, and gently. They added their own sense of humor and drama.
The volunteers showed the children how to grind corn and wheat, how to pare an apple with one turn of a handle, what ranchers used out on the prairies to keep the snakes from crawling into their sleeping bag, how to plant cotton, how to make a fire, how to make sorghum molasses and even had a sample of real sorghum molasses drizzled on cookies which tasted so delicious, like nothing you could buy at a regular grocery store. There was a wonderful discussion on what it was like to live back in those days and how it compares to life today. I saw children lifting a hand cart to get the feel of how strong you needed to be to handle one of those carts, I saw women dressed in their long pioneer dresses showing the old time washboards, and the many kitchen aide gadgets from long ago all of which were laid out on cow hides.
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| Rosie Kirkland puts her heart and soul into this event |
Each presenter did their presentation for 7 minutes, for 14 groups !, After the 7 minutes a horn blew and the groups departed to the next station. That includes the ice cream station. Volunteers scooped and served hundreds of ice creams in cups to groups of 20-30+ coming from a presentation.
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| The Ice Cream Stand with some CCAMA members Paul Moen and Rosemary Christensen. |
The whole event was a buzz of color, sound, laughter, smiles with sweet chorals of "THANK YOU ! " from the children after each presentation. It was rhythmic and timely. Beautifully organized.
See for yourself. I photographed and shot highlights of this event. If you have not yet seen this side of CCAMA then you are in for a treat ! Watch video here.
Thank you for visiting CCAMA,
Thank you for allowing me to be of service,
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| Deborah Moen Blog Administrator Photographer |
