More than steam
PORTERSVILLE — It's called the Portersville Steam Show, but if you think steam was the only attraction, you'd be way off the mark.
Oh, there was plenty of steam, all right. You could see it, hear it and feel it. But the event also featured a gas engine exhibit, a tractor parade, a sawmill and woodshop, threshing and baling demonstrations, a blacksmith, and a sprawling flea market, where you could find a spinning globe next to a jack-in-the-box next to a ceramic kitten next to a framed Rolling Stone cover from October 1982 that featured John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
But wait — there was more: a print shop, live music, antique vehicles, and air and gas engine models. And that's not all of it.As Richard Bosch, a longtime Steam Show participant, put it: “There's a little bit of everything.”There was enough to keep scores of visitors happy Saturday. Dave Brady, who lives between Edinboro and Albion, has been to the Steam Show a number of times. He enjoyed making the trip down again Saturday.“I just like old equipment,” said Brady, who was in the logging business. “I worked with a lot of it back in the day.”Brady's son, Michael, 21, was happy to accompany his dad to the Steam Show.“This has always been something my dad has liked, so I've grown up around it, and he's always brought me,” the younger Brady said. “So, that made me interested in it.”Katherine Burdelski, of West Deer, said her husband, Randal, wanted to come specifically Saturday because that's the best day for the flea market, and he likes to look for tools. But it wasn't just the lure of tool bargain that brought the Burdelskis to Portersville.
“We love to come and look at the different ages of the engines and the different technologies,” she said. “It's a great community.”Walter Edwards, who owns a dairy farm in the Stoneboro area, said he simply enjoys looking at “all the stuff,” but given his occupation he's most interested in farm equipment.“I still have my dad's '47 Farmall 8,” Edwards said. “I kept it and restored it. He traded in a team of horses in '47 and bought that tractor for 1,300 bucks. Nowadays, modern equipment is so high-priced, you can't even buy it.”George Schmitmeyer, 5, was operating a different caliber of machinery — a 4-horsepower 1958 Wheelhorse garden tractor under the watchful eye of his father, John, and grandfather, Steve.Steve Schmitmeyer, of Valencia, has been bringing family members to the Steam Show since the 1980s and can remember his son John, now 42, participating in the pedal tractor pulls.“We just enjoy bringing the garden tractor and the coaster wagon and looking at all the old tractors and the flea market and the old cars,” Steve Schmitmeyer said. “There's a whole lot here.”The Portersville Steam show is one of three events staged each year by the Northwest Pennsylvania Steam Engine and Old Equipment Association. The group formed in 1963 and put on the Steam Show at a couple different places before purchasing an abandoned strip mine in Portersville in 1975. That's been the show's home ever since.Some of those in the group say their involvement stemmed from an interest in machinery – an interest that in many cases dates to their childhood days.Bob Lewis' grandfather, for example, was a mechanic, and although Lewis never knew him, he grew up around things that belonged to his grandfather, including a couple of old gas engines. Lewis, who oversees the gas engines exhibit, embarked on his first restoration project at the age of 12 or so -- an old single-cylinder, two-cycle gas engine that came off a Maytag washer. He's done a few more since then.Bosch said he's always been interested in “old stuff – just about anything old, especially steam-powered.” He said the nice thing about the annual summer Steam Show is the variety of exhibits.
“Not everyone is interested in what I'm interested in,” explained Bosch, a West Liberty Borough resident, “but they might be interested in what this other guy's got. You'd be surprised – there are a lot of people who like this stuff.”Ben Midkiff, who oversees the steam engines exhibit, said he's always been attracted to the nuts and bolts aspect of things, but the history is a close second.“You get to see a lot of moving parts,” said Midkiff, who lives near West Sunbury. “I've always been fascinated by anything mechanical, and the steam engines, where you get to see everything moving, is more interesting to me than looking at a lot of other things.“The history is fascinating – and there's the joy of discovery. The joy of learning. Which is ironic because I was always a lousy student in school.”
