REMEMBERING FONDLY: Times I Had with Harry Woodmansee

One of the best tricks we ever played on Harry was at Jim Whitbey's show in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Harry and quite a few other people were sleeping in the engineer's tent that was supplied by Jim. It was a Saturday night and we were all feeling fairly mischievous that night. To make a long story a little shorter, I will leave out some of the minor details, but anyway what we did was pick Harry up, bed and all, and carried him out in the middle of the wheat field. I can't remember everyone involved, but there were four or five of us. I remember my dad filling Harry's shoes full of sawdust from our shingle mill.

I think that was the same year we knocked the tent down on all those poor people trying to sleep. I do recall that it was the same year that Vern Ott fell asleep on the drive belt to the saw mill--he was still there when I got up Sunday morning. I would say I had more fun at Jim Whitbey's show than at any other show!

The last few years the old round oak stove was replaced by a gas stove, but the stories didn't change. I stopped and talked with Harry on my way home from work quite often and we would talk for hours about steam shows of past and present. He always had a bottle of 'heart medicine' by his chair, and he claimed that's what kept his heart going. He would take a good strong belt of this 'heart medicine' every morning. I always get a kick out of that.

One other 'trick' that we pulled on Harry was by Dale Lewis and I. Harry was belting up an engine on the sawmill and we were holding the belt for him. Every time he would back into the belt, we would throw the belt off the flywheel and tell him that he wasn't lined up right. After about the third time he caught on and he chewed us out in his own way. I can also recall hiding his car in the straw pile several times. Good thing Harry had a sense of humor. Otherwise, he would have probably 'killed' us.

Harry, Ralph and my dad are all gone now. I miss them all greatly, but life goes on.

I am showing my kids the ropes of operating steam engines. My seven-year-old boy is learning fast--he loves it. I learned one thing: don't tell him to put wood in the firebox, he will put enough wood in there to go to Florida and back! He can't quite see where he's going, so I have to help him steer, but he is trying and his enthusiasm is great.