"The Threshing Machine" by Steve Adams

"The Threshing Machine" by Steve Adams

My sister recently posted a picture of our family proudly displaying an old McCormick-Deering threshing machine at a local Steam Meet.  The photo shows a clear day with my sisters perched on the old machine and dressed in straw hats and overalls.  I can be seen as a 16 year old driving the Farmall H into the parade line.

The photo looked quaint and nostalgic, but as I looked, I remembered the work it took to get the machine ready and the back road trip from the farm to the event.  For us kids, the thrill of showing that antique machine was thrilling at the time, but I am also sure that the older folks who actually used them saw something completely different!

Seeing old machines in a parade or the photos of that are a wonderfully clear way to remember the past, but they also can remind you of how much life has changed.  When that photo was taken, I could not have foreseen walking through a rice field in Kohalpur, Nepal…

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