History remembered at A&P Show
It was a typical Taranaki spring day – grass, cows, tractors, and the heavens opening at the drop of a hat.
But the drizzly skies on Saturday didn’t prevent a large turnout at the Stratford A&P Show, which featured everything from showjumping to rockclimbing to an old-fashioned carousel.
There were Clydesdales, firemen being put through their paces, Mickey and Minnie Mouse enjoying the festivities, and all manner of farming equipment, some of it more than a century old.
Peter Janaway was carefully setting up a 1904 blackstone stationary engine, probably the oldest 3-horsepower model in the country.
‘‘It was used to run a cowshed up the Whanganui River. It became obsolete because they no longer milked cows up there.’’
He first started collecting the engines for scrap metal.
‘‘I bought one engine home and I thought, ‘this is silly, it still goes’, and I started collecting them after that. I ended with over 100 of them at one time.’’
Restorer Ron Gemmill, from Bunnythorpe, near Palmerston North, chases the hobby all over the world.
‘‘I go over to Holland every year for the big show over there. There are 600-700 engines from Germany, Belgium, the UK.’’
Further on, five-year-old Kaya Evans was having a wonderful time on the carousel.
‘‘I probably had a go on this when I was a kid, the same one,’’ mum Rebecca said. ‘‘It’s really good they still have it around.’’
Grandma Shona Evans also enjoyed it. ‘‘I’m 65 and this is what got me into horses, and all I wanted after this was a pony,’’ she said. ‘‘I come from Waihi and they this.
‘‘We had three holidays – Christmas, birthday and show day. My mum always made us new clothes for show day; we always had a nice frilly dress.’’
Kaya added that ‘‘it was cool and it was fun’’.
‘‘I went up and down. I could even see the puppets.’’
And ‘Minnie Mouse’ was also having a good time. ‘‘It’s amazing; I’m enjoying the whole energy of it,’’ said the costume wearer. don’t have anything like