WAYNE TOWNSHIP – People have a healthy curiosity when it comes to old engines and tractors.
The Ashtabula County Antique Engine Club, through its 44th Annual Big Show, did its best to satisfy that curiosity.
“A lot of the things we have are from the 1940s, the 1930s or older,” Ashtabula County Antique Engine Club President Ted Seifert said. “It’s just learning a little bit about history and seeing machinery. People like to see things actually operate, like tractors driving around and the noise they make. It makes it kind of interesting for everybody.”
The 44th Annual Big Show was held at the Ashtabula County Antique Engine Club the weekend of July 3-5.
“It’s been a great time,” Seifert said. “We had a good year, especially considering all the other events in the communities around us. We still drew a good crowd, had lots of tractors, engines. We’re happy.”
The Big Show featured approximately 135 tractors and 213 vendors in the flea market.
“This is where we show off our work of all the things that we have done in the other part of the year and, also, we have 50 acres here that we maintain. It costs us money to maintain them. We’ve got about 50 buildings, and we’ve got to maintain those and this is how we make our income so we can keep continuing,” Seifert said.
A lighted tractor parade was held on Saturday with Hope McMahan, EMT for the Ashtabula County Antique Engine Club, serving as the grand marshal. Sunday’s parade, with Janet Lipps, who has run the club’s kitchen for many years, serving as the grand marshal, was canceled because of rain.
A number of other activities were held, as well.
“We always get a good turnout for the flea market,” Seifert said. “We had crafters and we had some kid games. There’s a barrel train that goes around for the kids and it’s good to see all the kids. It’s free. It keeps it very busy and the kids enjoy it.”
Extreme heat on Friday and Saturday and rain on Sunday affected attendance, as did a number of other events being hosted in the county.
“It affected it some,” Seifert said. “We didn’t have as big of a crowd as we normally do, but it was a good crowd, especially with all the things happening around us, the big parade in Jefferson and all that. We have people coming from New York, Cleveland, I sold a tractor to a fella who came here from Butler, Pennsylvania, so we draw from quite a ways out.”
The annual Big Show was a good way for guests to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday.
“It’s a good way to celebrate the fourth and we have food here so they don’t have to cook at home and a lot of people like to go sightseeing and travel on the holidays and Fourth of July is a good time to do that and bring the kids out. We had a lot of kids and we like to have children,” Seifert said.
