Print competition entry
Subject: Open
Award: First place
PSA Open
Look at my album titled "Casey's Places" for more.
In the back woods somewhere near Rising Sun, Indiana (I'd need to obtain a map in order to find my way back there). Pretty much by chance I met the young guy (28 at the time) who owns this very remote property with his family. It turns out that a few weeks later, he was going to have a big fried chicken dinner at the place to show off the barn he and two Amish guys had reconstructed on the property (in the background). He had rebuilt a hay press (one of only 3 in Indiana that still worked) in the barn and wanted to show everyone how it worked. Such hay presses were used to make "bails" of hay prior to the invention of more complicated mechanical bailers. This one involves a horse in the basement of the barn that walks in circles raising a large weight to the top of the barn. Hay is put into the shaft under the weight and then the weight is released, crashes down on the hay and compresses it. The process is repeated several times until the desired size "bail" is reached. .
He invited the Snakedoctor and me to attend the dinner along with about 40 antique cars from a Model A Ford group in our area and gave us maps to the place. As we followed the map, the roads got smaller and smaller and worse and worse until we turned on to a gravel road. I think we drove on that road for about 2 miles before we got to the barn and we didn't see much of anything along the way. He had fixed the place up to look nicer than most any State park I've ever been to with a long rock wall along the creek and rusty antique farm implements scattered around the expansive property to establish the proper atmosphere.
Soon after we arrived, the old cars started to parade in and we had a field day shooting each as it passed us by, did a big circle and came by again before parking. The food and company were great as was the hay press demonstration. It was an experience I'd love to repeat. It isn't that often that I've been able to shoot old cars in a place that provided such an appropriate background. One thing I really like about the guys in the Model A club is that they are willing to drive their cars under less than ideal conditions. A few had issues which required on site repairs before the return trip. Some even considered driving their cars up the creek bed to the family's other property on the ridge above.
Probably my favorite car at the event was a 1935 Dodge convertible roadster that I've seen at local parades and the Concours D'Elegance. You know it has to be primo in order to get into the Concours. It and this Chevrolet were probably the only non Fords there.
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