Day satisfies his appetite, returns to Old Threshers

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Mark Day figured it was time to return to Old Threshers.

A half-century absence was long enough. The ?bug? hit Day, now working as a contractor in Atlanta, Ga., less than a month ago.

It was a photo album that whetted the appetite.

?My parents and I were looking through some old photo albums earlier this summer,? Day reflected Friday while standing near the steam engines at Old Threshers. ?We saw some of the photos from Old Threshers, and we all agreed we have to get back there.?

Day came on a mission.

One of the photos showed Day when he was about four years old perched upon a 1906 16-horse Reeves steam engine. Day thought wouldn?t it be great to go back to Old Threshers and find the steam engine and have a re-creation of the photo. He also wanted to give the photo, taken 50 years ago, to descendants of the Reeves? owner.

?I came deliberately looking for that steam engine,? he said. Upon arriving, he inquired at the steam engine headquarters where the Reeves steam engines were located.

Armed with the photo, he made a few inquiries as he trod down the row of Reeves steam engines and was pointed in the direction of Joyce Hoffmaster. Hoffmaster?s father had owned the steam engine on which Day was pictured.

He didn?t have much of a problem finding her. After all, everybody associated with steam engines knows Hoffmaster because she has only missed a handful of Old Thresher reunions since 1962.

That is somewhat of an oddity in itself as Hoffmaster and her family grew up in Ohio and she is now a pharmacist at a children?s hospital in Dayton.

Hoffmaster, however, has steam in her blood. ?This is truly one of the places in the world that I call home,? she said, referring to the annual reunion.

Saying that Hoffmaster and her husband are steam engine enthusiasts would be an understatement. She and her husband have 10 steam engines, a steam crane, a 1928 Empire steam car, four steam engines and other miscellaneous steam-related equipment.

Most of the Hoffmasters? steam equipment is stored in Ohio but they keep an 1890 Minnesota Giant steam engine at Old Threshers and drive it regularly in the cavalcade of power.

?The engine has been here since 1990 and we purchased it last year,? Hoffmaster said, pointing at the 1890 machine. ?The guy who we bought it from said he bought it from a guy in Colorado. It had just been sitting in some weeds out there, but it was still in good shape.?

Day and Hoffmaster had never met prior to Wednesday?s handshake at the reunion.

With the meeting and seeing the sights of the reunion once again, Day considers the trip a success. The only disappointment was that the steam engine, on which he had his picture taken, is now in Indiana at Hoffmaster?s sister?s residence, having left the Old Thresher grounds in 1999.

Hoffmaster, however, put a little frosting on Day?s cake by agreeing to pose with him for a photo in front of her 1890 Minnesota Giant.