BERNARDSTON — Cookout food, vendors, the sound of tractors and the pop of the gas engines populated Pratt Field on Friday as dozens of volunteers began setting up for opening day of the Bernardston Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair.
Friday, described as a “slow breaking-in period” by Michelle Rooks, a United Church of Bernardston member and the person in charge of social media and promotions for the event, saw craft and flea market vendors arrive in spades, along with the tractors and gas engines that give the 50-year-old event its name. Three activities over the weekend are dedicated to the farm machinery, with the children’s garden tractor pull on Saturday, and two tractor parades, one each on Saturday and Sunday.
Rooks said many of the people behind the wheels of their tractors and under the vendor tents have history with each other, which she said mirrors the spirit of the event.
“It is very generational. You’ll hear people that say, ‘I came here with my grandfather when I was 6,’ and now they have grandkids of their own,” Rooks said. “A lot of these people, they’ll travel to these shows together. So, they kind of set up side by side, some of them camp on site. … We get a lot of the same exhibitors year to year, same vendors year to year. Even if it’s the only time they see some of these people, they reconnect with friendships they made in previous years.”
One of these vendors, Herb Hermann, who’s come to the event for “five or six, maybe 10” years, said he’s seen many of the same faces populate the Gas Engine Show in his time. From Connecticut, Hermann sells repair tools and sandpaper, saying that people who are restoring their tractors need the supplies that he provides.
“It’s a great show, a great family show,” Hermann said. “A lot of nice people come to see me every year.”
Once the three-day event is in full swing, Pratt Field, encompassing 10 acres, will be home to 104 flea market and craft vendors that will take over 3 acres. The rest is dedicated to the gas engines, tractors and food booths operated by the United Church of Bernardston.
“We don’t rob ya,” Russell Deane, a founding member of the Gas Engine Show and the current “overseer of everything,” said about the food prices. “We used to sell hamburgers and hot dogs, and now we sell hamburgers, hot dogs, breakfast casserole. We have French fries and fruit salad. We have everything.”
The food booths take up a miniscule amount of space on the field, with the rest for the titular gas engines and tractors. Tractors of all shapes and sizes could be found at Pratt Field on Friday afternoon, and gas engines there power all sorts of contraptions, including the rotisserie where the ham for Saturday’s ham and bean supper will be cooked, some of the tractors rattling along the grass and, in one case, a modified two-seat couch that picked up impressive speeds and occasionally caught some air when navigating a bump.
While interesting uses for the gas engines were seen, what was most prevalent were the rows of tractors lined side by side, behind fences and ropes. Greenfield resident Ronnie Wright, 80, sitting behind the wheel of a 1959 John Deere 630, said he’s been “a tractor freak” since he was a kid, and has worked on farms all his life.
“I’ve driven tractors since I was probably 6 years old,” Wright said. “I was a farmer, so I had field work, plowing, chopping corn, cutting corn, haying and baling. I’m more or less retired now, but I still like doing field work when I can.”
A history with tractors and farming isn’t limited to Wright. Bernardston resident Vickie Ovitt said she has been attending the Gas Engine Show since she was a kid, when her father began helping with the event, and she’s now been lending a hand herself for about 30 years. She runs the engine show registration booth and the watering wagons, helping get water to the gas engines that need it to run — something her father and uncle did before her. Her son and grandsons help, too.
“It’s a four-generation thing,” Ovitt said.
The Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair continues through Sunday. The schedule is as follows:
Saturday, May 23
- 6 to 9:30 a.m. — Breakfast (food booths open all day).
- 8 a.m. — Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair opens.
- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Children’s garden tractor pull.
- 2 p.m. — Tractor parade.
- 5 to 6 p.m. — Ham and bean supper.
Sunday, May 24
- 6 to 9:30 a.m. — Breakfast (food booths open all day).
- 8 a.m. — Worship service under the big top.
- 9 a.m. — Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair opens.
- 11 a.m. — Tractor parade.
- 1 p.m. — Raffle drawing.
