The One About Our Labor Day Weekend

Oh, yeah, I wanted to blog about what we did on our Labor Day weekend. I know that was way more than a week ago. I should be a bit more prompt about these things. But, hey this is my blog and I can write about things when I want to, right?

We had some fun plans made for the long Labor Day weekend. Some good friends we met while we were living in Singapore had invited us to spend the weekend with them in Chicago. It has been 7 or 8 years since I have seen my dear friend, Jackie, and I was excited to catch up. But then, our friends heard at the last minute that their son and daughter-in-law were coming for a visit. They don't get to see their kids very often so they, of course, opted to stay home and see the kids. We would have done the same thing. For sure.

So, we started working on Plan B. We both spent the day brain-storming possibilities. Hubby came home from work and said he had just thought of a great idea:

The Old Thresher's Reunion in the small SE Iowa town my hubby went to high school.

Not sure how to even describe this event. It's been going on for over 60 years (my grandpa used to take my cousin to it) and I think it began so farmers could get together and remember using steam engines for various tasks, like threshing grain. There are a lot of steam engines, tractors, cars, and trucks on display. There are exhibits how how things were done...lumber mill, making sorghum, displays of how running a household used to be "back in the day." I like seeing those things and remembering the stories my mom told me about growing up, about how her mother knew exactly how many corn cobs to put in the stove to bake a cake or a loaf of bread.

So off we went to SE Iowa. We saw these sights at Old Threshers:

I know, I took a lot of pictures. Here are a few more!

This is my favorite picture:

Hubby worked at Blue Bird Bus Company a couple of summers during the college years. Yep! He used to build school buses! (That would have been a few years after this bus was built....)


I really enjoyed seeing this event that I have heard my hubby talk about for a long time. He had always said we should go sometime when we didn't have anything else going on for Labor Day Weekend. I'm glad it worked out for us to go.

As a bonus to end the weekend: On the drive back north we were able to stop for short visits with both of our parents. 

I laughed at the contrast in our plans.... a weekend in the big city of Chicago .... changed to a weekend in small town Iowa looking at agriculture related things. We are diverse people, aren't we?!