By Staff
Tractor races, equipment displays part of annual event
By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles &Features Editor
CHOCOWINITY — The “good old days” of pitcher pumps, kerosene lamps and tractors without air conditioning or television were revisited this weekend during the annual antique tractor and farm show sponsored by the Eastern Antique Power Association.
The show ran all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Along with the displays of vintage farm equipment and classic automobiles, the event featured pedal tractor competitions for youngsters, an auction, flea market and live music, including performances by the Forbes Brothers and the Christian bluegrass band, Unshackled.
While the show offered a good time for the young and the not-so-young, it also helped promote the association’s mission of preserving a way of life in eastern North Carolina.
Wallace is one of 11 charter members who founded the association and he is a former secretary/treasurer. He exhibited his 1960 Ford tractor, which he restored about 12 years ago.
Another charter member and a former club president, Stan Hudson, hosts the show each year at his shop on Bear Creek Road in Chocowinity.
The auction featured everything from homemade cakes baked by wives of the club members to International Harvester toy tractors and cases of motor oil.
The club members will start formulating ideas for next year’s show now, with planning beginning in earnest in January. The club currently boasts a membership of more than 50 individuals interested in preserving farm history, according to Hudson.
Blounts Creek native Jesse Tripp said he joined the club about a year after it was established, and he has visited other farm shows across North Carolina and as far away as Indiana.
One of the show’s more unusual events — the slow tractor race — resulted in a new winner being crowned over the weekend. Mike Clark took this year’s title, which recognizes the best engine tuner and mechanic. Participants drive their tractors 100 feet and the slowest — without cutting off — wins, according to Hudson, who won the race several years. Clark succeeds last year’s winner, James Russell Boyd.
The Eastern Antique Power Association meets the second Saturday of each month beginning at 7 p.m. at the Golden Corral restaurant in Washington. New members are always welcome, according to Wallace.
Potential members don’t have to invest time and money in purchasing and restoring tractors and hit and miss engines, club members said. They should just have a passion for and an interest in preserving local farming history.
*For more information, call (252) 975-2207 or (252) 975-5990.