ILLIANA NEWS

OCTOBER 2007 ISSUE 10

MEETING:

The next meeting of the Illiana Antique Power Association will be on Monday, October 15, 2007 at the home of Tom and Carolyn Swanson. A carry-in dinner will begin at 6:30 P.M. so please bring a dish to pass. The Swanson’s address is: 272 N. State Road 55, Attica, Indiana. Their home is approximately 1-1/2 miles north on St. Rd. 55 from Hwy 41, on the west side of the road; or, 1-1/2 miles south of the Big Pine Golf Course on St. Rd. 55. Look for a long white house among a grove of trees. Tom will have a sign out along the road. Members will be treated to view Tom’s Christmas village that he has built and Carolyn has decorated. Since Tom has retired, his hobby has been building exact miniature replicas of local area buildings. His talent for details is amazing. You won’t want to miss this!! A short meeting is planned and there will not be a merchandise drawing. SEE YOU THERE!! (NOTE: There is no meeting scheduled in November.)

FALL FUN DAY RECAP:

Our annual Fun Day was held on Sunday, September 30, 2007. We couldn’t have ordered a more beautiful fall day! The weather was perfect so we had a good turn out of members and friends. Ed and Pat Grubb along with John, Penny and Toby Carrell brought their campers on Saturday and camped over night. Jim and Doris Manlief did their usual “sprucing up” around the show grounds to make it “picture perfect” for the event. The Bodines brought their cider press and a crate of apples from the Coffing Bros. Orchard. Everyone pitched in to help press the apples and soon the cider was flowing and cups and jugs were filled. Hope everyone had a jug to take home with them....it was delicious!! A big carry-in dinner was enjoyed by all. Again, we have to mention that our club has the best cooks around. The food was outstanding! (It’s no wonder our two cookbooks were a sell out.) We had a “Birthday Boy” among us....it was John Carrell’s birthday, but most of us were polite enough not to ask how old he was! And, we also had a wedding anniversary couple....Terry and Anne Bodine celebrated their 40^th Wedding Anniversary with a cake decorated with their wedding picture on it. My, how they have changed!

Don Bodine’s steam engine is back on the grounds and he had it “fired up” and hooked up to the people mover for rides. It is now tucked away in the shed waiting for next year’s show. The railroad group had several engines running and the cars were full of riders enjoying the trip through the loops around the grounds. New members, Leroy and Penny Swider from Danville, Il. entertained us with their music and songs. It’s amazing the talent we have in our membership! In the late afternoon, everyone pitched in to help clean up. Soon, after hugs and waves and happy faces, the only ones left were the bees (and a few lady bugs) buzzing around the apple pulp!

We’d like to welcome new member Bob Parsell from Glenview, Il. to the club.

DUES:

Just a reminder that yearly dues are due now. If you hadn’t paid your dues at the show you can send them to Doris Manlief at: 3618 Donna Dr., Lafayette, In. 47905. This is a family membership that helps pay the expenses of printing and mailing the newsletter. To help cut costs, we have also started e-mailing the newsletter. If you haven’t already given us your address you can e-mail it to Dawn Lechlitner at: [email protected] Or Anne Bodine at:

[email protected] ( NOTE: Anne’s e-mail has changed from [email protected] to [email protected]) You can also go to our web site at: illianaantiquepower.com to view the newsletters. Pete VonStein keeps the newsletter current on the site.

BUCKETS:

Terry Bodine is still requesting a few plastic 5-gallon buckets to cover the outlets around the show grounds. Please donate one or two if you can to help protect the outlets from the weather.

ROCKY FORGE BLACKSMITH GUILD:

The blacksmith group has been busy this month with demonstrations at the Eteljorg Indian Museum in Indianapolis. Jim Keith, Paul Petosky and Shane Stegmeirer were involved for two days demonstrating to hundreds of kids and adults. Larry Whitesell, Dominick Andrasini and Ted Stout set up and demonstrated at the Bill and Gloria Gaither Fall Festival on Saturday October 6^th. The weather was very hot during both of these demonstrations. During this event I had an experience with a 12 year old who appeared very interested in the black smithing. He just kept watching until finally I asked if he would like to try it. He was beaming and quickly came behind the fence and sure enough gave it a try. He caught on fast and with instruction proceeded to make a nice looking S hook. Turns out it was Gaither’s grandson from Greencastle Indiana. Cool! The blacksmith group is anxious to get back to our regular meeting schedule and be free of all the commitments we have during the spring, summer and fall months. The next meeting will be October 13^th at Ted’s shop.

Ted Stout

PINE CREEK AND WESTERN R.R.:

The “Train guys” made the most of Fun Day with seven members and families attending. “Old Faithful” Dick Fontaine had his trench engine burning up the rails, offering rides to one and all, with plenty of takers. Joe Kingsbury brought his beautiful Diesel engine and cars and hauled passengers as well. Tim Sering brought along that gorgeous American and something special; his twelve year old “Crab”vertical boiler engine, which was only seeing the rails for the second time. After blowing out the cobwebs, she ran beautifully. Tim, what took so long?? There was some excitement when it was discovered that an “Outlaw” engineer had taken to the rails on Doc’s old box cab engine (newly refurbished by John Carrell). He was a seedy looking character who reeked of Kubota exhaust fumes. If you know his identity, please report same to the train club so we can collect dues!! A good time was had by all.

Finny Filchak