Sycamore celebrates Steam Show

SYCAMORE – Riding high on the signature kelly-green colored John Deere tractor, Adele Swanson waved back at the men sitting in lawn chairs who were looking up at each passing tractor with admiration and a bit of nostalgia. Swanson motioned to a few men who were talking to each other over the drone of the engines, pointing to tractors like kids picking out candy at a store.

"It's fun to see the old guys reminisce," said Swanson, of Sycamore.

The Northern Illinois Steam Power Club's annual Sycamore Steam Show and Threshing Bee kicked off Thursday with the traditional whistle blowing at noon, an afternoon parade, and hundreds of steam engines, tractors and other antique machines.

It continues daily through Sunday.

Swanson, one of four generations at the event in rural Sycamore, has a particular tie to the steam show: It was the 54th annual show, the same age she is.

She has been going to the show with her dad since she was born, a tradition that has continued with her children and her grandchild, 2-year-old Kyla Rissman.

"It's too hard to explain [old farming methods], so we're teaching her first-hand how it used to be," Kyla's mother, Kristi Rissman of DeKalb, said.

Though Kyla first went to the show when she was a few months old, it was her first time being in the parade this year. She sat on yellow Farmall tractor with her aunt, Haylee Henke, following Swanson's John Deere around the loop.

Kyla kept both hands on the wheel throughout the parade, occasionally raising a small hand to wave, but a look of determination never left her face.

"We can't get her off. She screams," Kristi Rissman said.

The family starts by eating Fay's Pork Chop Bar B Que, then taking pictures at the tractors before the parade.

"It's just warm, fuzzy feelings out here," Swanson said. "One of the neat parts out here is talking to the old guys with all their old stories. Those guys won't be around much longer."

Twelve-year-old Jake Wall of Yorkville had a few stories of his own, as he's been driving a tractor with his grandfather since he was 3, he said. Jake chattered about the different tractors as he went down the row, stopping every now and then to admire a particular model.

When he saw a homemade replica of a McCormick W-6, he ran toward it, exclaiming its value as he approached the small, red tractor.

"This is crazy. This is nice," Jake said.

When the operator turned on a hydraulic plow, it blew Jake away.

"That guy is talented," he said.

Farther down the row, a tractor with two side-by-side seats off the back stopped Jake in his tracks.

"I've never seen one like that," he said under his breath.

In a grassy area nearby, antique machines on display throughout the weekend would be demonstrating old farming methods, like threshing and sawing using steam power.

"The main draw is the reproduction of old-time farming methods, that's the main theme, especially with the use of steam power," said Bud Budzien, a volunteer at the show for about 25 years.

Dwain Karow of Burlington, Wis., drove 70 miles for just that.

Karow remembers as a young kid, about 5 or 6 years old, when he was atop the wagon of a thresher. The operator had allowed him to pitch a few bundles of the separated oats "just to say I could help," he said.

A dairy farmer, Karow, 59, noted how hard it is to see some old methods – like shellers that didn't filter out the corn cobs and corn that was naturally dried – go.

"It's kind of sad to see it change from then," he said. "That's progress."

Some of the antique equipment is owned by the Northern Illinois Steam Power Club and will often go to other shows, Budzien said. In 2003, the club purchased its first steam traction engine, built in Sycamore by the Illinois Thresher Company around 1916.

"Every now and then, one will go through a rebuilding program and will come out here," Budzien said, "and it's a fresh face."

If you go

What: 54th Annual Sycamore Steam Show and Threshing Bee

When: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through Sunday

Where: Taylor Marshall Farm, 27707 Lukens Road, Sycamore

Admission: $6; children under 12 are free. For more information, visit www.threshingbee.org.