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Bigger and Bigger Antique Tractor Show underway today 14th Annual Antique Gas Engine & Tractor Show gets underway at 10amCT, today, Saturday, June 19, 2010, at Garrison Construction Co. in Adair County at 6960 Greensburg RD, Greensburg, KY, between Columbia and Greensburg, KY on KY 61 By Ed Waggener Today's 14th Annual Russell Creek Gas Engine & Tractor Show appears poised to go into the record book as at least the second biggest one ever. It will be hard to top the record 2005 crowd and record number of exhibitors inspired by the show's national exposure on RFD-TV that year, but one record, the number of Lewis Garrison tractors in the exhibit, is assured: There are 95 this year, with the addition of two which are worth the trip to Clay Ridge in and of themselves: A 1938 Silver King, and a Gibson, manufactured in Seattle, WA. In addition to Garrison's tractors, exhibitors from several states will be pouring into the Adair County Village of Clay Ridge, located on KY 61 near the Green County line. Garrison expects 75 to 100 to be here this morning.Some will be driving the equipment from local points; many others will be bringing the machines, as many as four major pieces per transport, aboard specially made carriers. Work on each Tractor show a year long labor Work on the event is a year long task, intensifying in the month immediately preceding the affair. Lewis Garrison himself is the impresario, the CEO. He's backed up by his wife, Gayle Corbin Garrison; daughter Amy Mitchum and her husband Mike; by son James Garrison, and his new main man at the show, Clint Garrision. Others on the "board" are Duane Corbin, David Chrisman, Andy Collins, Charles Collins, Billie Lee, and Tim Bottoms. There are countless hours which go into the planning, promotion and staging of the show, which vies for the title of "Adair County's Biggest Annual Event." This year, Mike Keltner has arranged for an Air Evac demonstration, which will take place in a roadside open space, and many other independent booths and vendors will be there to give the gathering the rich mix of food, fun, and fellowship for which America's heartland is known. This year, new food vendors will be there for hungry show goers. Steve Pelston will make his debut as the Barbecue Man today. He'll have Whole Hog Smoked Pig plus all the sides - baked beans, potatoes, and cabbage and more. And Doug Campbell is cooking Polish sausage with grilled onions, cold drinks and ice cold water, and other snacks will be available from several vendors. Additionally, many restaurants in the Adair, Green, Taylor and Metcalfe Counties have made special preparation to feed the crowds coming to the show. Plenty of provenance The show exhibits in a day what could be a year-round Tractor and Truck museum if the Garrisons ever chose to do so. Each Garrison item has Smithsonian quality labels and placards, making self-guided tours very easy. If one is lucky enough to have Lewis Garrison along, it's easy to spend 30 minutes or more learning the fascinating provenance. For instance, a 1960s White Ford sedan is shown with a question. "Remember when this car was parked by the Greensburg Post Office?" Garrison asks, and one can almost remember the machine, in a dingier state, along South Main Street in the Green County county seat. "It belonged to Ada Kidd. She had a barber shop there," he recalls, and then gives the step by step process he's supervised to bring the car back to the day when it rolled off the Goff Motors showroom floor. He passes a B.F. Avery tractor, and lets a visitor know that Farmall's and Internationals weren't the only farm tractors made in Louisville. "B.F. Avery was manufactured there, too," he said, and adds that he thinks his came from a dealership in Hodgenville, KY Other machines bring to mind their service days in his fleet of vehicles. "I'll bet you never saw a Ford like this one," he says, pointing to a low rider orange and black one." It was utilized in his Garrison Construction Co. fleet, early on. "It was a workhorse," Garrison remembers. "It has such a low center of gravity you couldn't turn it over." And then he tells the why of the color scheme. "When they repainted it, they asked me if I wanted original colors, and I said, 'Let's just leave it Garrison orange and black." And the colors are on the tractor, today. Almost all the tractors still run. One, however, is symbolic. And it adds character to the show. It's a rusting 1921 or 22 McCormick cleated steel rimmed machine. "It's locked up," Garrison said. "We decided to just leave it that way and use it for to show off at the sign." But he shows how difficult it is to leave anything in its un-rehabilitated state. "Maybe," he says, we will get it in shop and get it running again someday." He remembers the tractor dealerships in Columbia - from Overstreet and Rice and their International dealership to Haskin Coomer's days with Fords to G & G's Massey-Ferguson dealership - now Hobdy, Read, & Co. And, of course, one his favorites, the John Deere dealership on the Public Square in Downtown Columbia: C.R. Hutchison & Sons. And from each, he tries to accumulate memorabilia - one more piece of Americana to add to the his museum. One dealership he'd not known about, L.R. Chelf's McCormick-Deering outlet at Knifley, KY, he put out the word that he'd love to buy memorabilia - an advertising thermometer or calendar from that store. Just in, and now ensconced in a prominent place, was an Aubrey's Red A burlap feed sack, secured for Garrison by Sammy Booher. It was the kind of container Mr. E. Campbell, Doug Campbell's late grandfather, used to sell at his feed store beside his Columbia Supermarket, at the Jamestown Street/Russell Road intersection in mid-20th century Columbia. And, a new flag This year, a new flag flies over Clay Ridge, held aloft by a Garrison Construction crane. The flag, one of Adair County's largest, was purchased just for the event from the Oates Flag Company in Louisville, KY. Tangible reality plus memories If there were curators, the event would be fascinating. But with the stories which go with each piece, with each picture, there is more: Great memories. That will be what is bringing a family from Louisiana today. Garrison has a restored high rider Ford tractor the family drove when they were actively involved on their plantation. They're coming to Adair County today, to make good on a Lewis Garrison offer to let them experience the feel of the machine again, and drive it parade, a highlight of each of the one-day festivals which have become such a tradition in South Central Kentucky, such an important component of the Adair County tourist scene. This story was posted on 2010-06-19 08:13:56
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