September 6th, 2008 Mabel Steam Engine Days

I hit the 56th annual Mabel/Hesper Steam Engine Days.   I am not sure how many times I have hit it before, I missed the last one or maybe two years but, it’s a pretty big event for a small town.  Highlights are the beer tent, food, Steam Engine grounds as well as the big Parade.  I see some relatives that I don’t typically see very often, their kids are like 3 feet taller every year I go and a bunch of people I don’t know walk up to me and talk about something I did like 30 years ago while visiting my grandparents.  I don’t mean to be disrespectful but, I am really bad at names and faces.  In a small town like this someone comes to visit for a few days it’s big news, I might run into a dozen people on one visit 30 years ago and they only have to remember one cute kid.  Anyhow the kids love the parade but, they had parties and such to go to so they didn’t come this year, otherwise they would have had tons of candy thrown at them.  The steam engines line up right next to my grandmothers house with only one prefab preventing chunks of steel from slicing me in half at 2000mph if one should go up resulting in a chain reaction blowing all the others up, that would be quite the explosion(the house next door burnt down, my grandmothers house is about 100 years old and in great shape).  Loud monsters but, very cool.  The parade starts at Noon with the steam engines and then about an hours worth of tractors, lots of old ones.  I think it’s pretty cool how they can keep a tractor from 1916 running year after year and looking really nice.  An hours worth of tractors from manufacturer’s that have come and gone.  This is followed by a huge parade starting with an honor guard, marching band’s, Miss Mabel 2008, etc, tons of businesses with signs on their cars, floats, scouts of all kinds, various people running for office of some type.

After this we typically hit the Lions Club for Chicken, it varies year to year but, my Mom tends to make enough food to feed a town with a huge selection of food, if we were an army we had enough food to march and take over Spring Grove.

We hit the beer tent where the Cannon Old West Society (Old West re-enactors were putting on a show), while waiting I had to decide between Busch, Bud, or Bud Light, I went with Busch as they had a huge Semi with a bunch of deer heads mounted in it for a quick walk thru, I guess, if you drink Busch you kill big deer or something.  It was pretty cool, I missed the staged bank robbery at 11am, I guess they vary the caper depending on time of day and location but, the guns sound pretty real whenever they shot the shotgun I could have sworn I heard pellets landing on some roof.  But, in this one the guy with the money bags was leaving the Saloon with the money bags from the last caper (the bank heist) kind of wobbly, when 6-7 guys were demanding the money which resulted in a shoot out, the wobbly older gentleman managed to take them all out but, the ladies hit him over the head with a bottle and ran away with the money….

We walked through town, some shops change hands year to year, others decade to decade, so it’s always fun to walk down mainstreet and see some place that you went shopping at 30 years ago.  We made it to the Steam Engine Grounds where their were rides, food, threshing and such going on as well as an R/C demo, I guess they have quite the Radio Control club in Mabel, I never would have guessed.  After that we headed home, typically we will hit the bars up-town briefly and walk through each one, briefly, but, pretty much stayed at my grand mothers and ate food all night.  I left the following morning at 11am after breakfast but, before the next days steemies festivities on a little detour through bluff country.  I did not take a DSLR, just the SD1000, traveling light.

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