Tractor Show rumbles again

Published 6:41 pm Saturday, November 9, 2013

ORRVILLE — It certainly has a long name, and on Saturday the 12th Annual West Dallas Antique Tractor, Car, Gas Engine & Craft Show offered an equally long list of entertainment options for the thousands in attendance.

Sandra Roberts, a Plantersville resident, brought her great-grandson, Ethan Peters, along to take in the sights and to give him a chance to see over two dozen antique tractors up close.

“This is all from back in my day,” Roberts said. “The little ones his age don’t see things like this too often, and it’s great for them to see all this.”

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Peters spent much of the afternoon racing from tractor to tractor, spending time behind the wheels, much like his great-grandmother said she did when she was first learning to drive.

“I like sitting on the tractors, and driving them,” Peters said.

Roberts said Saturday’s tractor show was the largest she had been to yet.

“I’ve been three or four years, and this has really grown,” Roberts said. “We already walked around once, and will probably go around, again.”

Orrville resident Ed Calame’s trip to the tractor show was seven years in the making. Earlier in the week, Calame had completed restoring a 1955 Chevrolet hardtop coupe, a project that took a bit more time and energy than the normal restoration work he does.

“I usually work on motorcycles, so this took about 10 times the works compared to what I’m used to,” Calame said. “But now that I’m done, it just means I’m looking for something else to do.”

With his car prominently displayed between classic Mustangs and Pontiacs, Calame said it had already caught the attention of plenty of people in attendance Saturday. “I’ve had a lot of comments and even a couple of offers,” Calame said. “But it’s not even for sale yet. I’d like to drive it home today.”

Along with the well-loved tractors and sleek muscle cars — and for the first year, a display of old boats — artists from around the region brought their works to show and sell.

Selma resident and pottery artist Allen Ham was spinning pottery on a pottery wheel Saturday near a display of hundreds of his pieces he was trying to sell, said he always makes a point to return to the tractor show.

“This is probably the fifth or sixth year I’ve been out here,” Ham said. “I go to Market Day and this, then to Kentuck and a few events down south. People are always asking how long I’ve been doing this, or how I got into it. And really, I just grew up around it.”