From the early morning community pancake breakfast to the late evening fireworks show, the Village of Elkhorn was a busy place with something for all ages. In fact, there were other events such as a few large family gatherings for reunions and wedding anniversaries to add to the excitement.
At the pancake breakfast the crowd was so big that they almost ran out of pancake batter and while members of the municipal government were busy cooking, two special visitors were MP Larry Maguire and MLA Doyle Piwniuk and family.
Throughout the village, at the fairgrounds and at the antique auto museum, vehicles, floats and bicycles were being prepared for the parade that started at 1:30 p.m. The parade route was lined with spectators, many finding a shady spot to get out of the hot, but welcome rays of the sun.
The parade was one of the longest in the last several years, with a large number of entries that pretty well represented the last 150 years of Canada's history. The parade announcer this year was Mark Humphries with his special brand of English humor assisted by auto museum curator Richard Hainer.
In past years the parade announcer was Kevin Tutthill, who presently is in a Winnipeg hospital recovering from a work related accident, but Humphries announced that Kevin would be returning to the village and his lifelong home on July 21.
All of us in the village wish him a speedy recovery. During the parade event, the local Creamee on the parade route was giving out free ice cream cones while some of the floats and vehicles were throwing out free treats to the children as they drove by.
The last vehicle in the parade was the community fire truck with a large spray canon that helped cool you down or just got the spectators wet - a matter of opinions. Also during the parade the area green house operator had members running along the parade giving out free bedding flowers, with lots of red and white blooms.
Many vehicles in the parade ended up at the museum grounds for closer inspection during the afternoon. At the museum a special admission rate allowed visitors in to all the displays.
On the museum grounds there was a barbeque lunch, strawberry social, live musical entertainment and at 6:00 p.m., a cold plate supper put on by the museum’s active Restoration Club .
Other events during the day included a play area and activities for the children and young at heart such as free rides on the museums barrel train and a place to take photos of themselves in period costumes, in old cars.
However for those who wanted to sit back and enjoy, there was a beer garden where you could have a barley pop or just a soft drink while sitting at a picnic table with friends.
The main event of the afternoon was the threshing display out in back of the museum, built on newly cleared and leveled land. As the big iron steam engine owned by Lyn Tutthill and his wife Vicky, built up steam in the boiler, with cord wood being loaded into the fire box, the steam whistle would blow letting everyone know that it was time to hook up the pulley belt to the threshing machine and start pitching sheaves into the rattling antique threshing machine from the museum’s collection.
There was never any shortage of volunteers to get on top of the hay rack full of sheaves and work the hay fork into the load and then onto the feed belt. Many volunteers are seniors who later told stories of how they use to do this for years in their youth.
Next to the threshing machine was the antique grain wagon, slowly filling up with the golden kernels of wheat ; while out another spout of the threshing machine the yellow wheat straw was blown into a neat pile; for those getting too close to the flow of straw, it would make its way to the deepest recesses of clothing and foot wear.
Later that night, the straw was burned as a combination bonfire and mosquito repellent smoke. (The mosquitoes remained in full force.)
Soon, it was time for the fireworks display and despite a limited budget; a colorful show was put on to the enjoyment of all.
