(Captions transcribed by Violet Hatfield)
Johnathan: I’m here with Greg Wennes at
Giants of the Earth Heritage Center
in Spring Grove, Minnesota and we’re going to ask
Greg about
his experiences with Mabel Steam Engine Days.
Greg: Thank you Johnathan. I’m grateful
to get to be here and share my experience
about Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days. I am
one of very few, if not the only one that
I am aware of, that’s been to every single
one of the Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days
before Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days, just plain
old Steam Engine Days. Maybe Junior Dahl
might’ve been to every single one, I’m not sure.
But I remember being at the very first one
on the Gerhard Clauson farm which was about
four or five miles east of the farm that I
grew up on, and it was in the fall and I don’t
know whose idea it was to have a little celebration
of the fall by gathering one, two, three steam
engines together, and bringing a casserole
and having a potluck and threshing some grain
or sawing some logs. I don’t know if that
was Arnold Peterson’s idea or Jim Sylling’s
or Gerhard Clauson’s, but one of them
and those guys were colleagues in operating steam
engines, and Gerhard Clauson had one on his
farm, so Arnold Peterson and I believe another
one was there on the first Steam Engine Days
in early September.
It was a rainy day, I was only 3 years old--1953--but
I remember very clearly the event, and I think
what triggers the-- the memories of the events
so clearly, is that I was just terrified of
the steam whistles. I don’t know why
I love them today, I now own a steam locomotive
whistle that came off an engine in New York
I think I paid about-- several thousand dollars
for it (chuckles) and I love to hear it blow, but
It was a rainy day and I remember being disgruntled
about having to sit on the front seat of the
car and watch these guys up on this rounded
oats field hill with these engines out there,
and then the rain stopped and then they did
some work and so on. That’s about all I
remember the very first one.
And I remember there was another one there,
and there were more people at the next one.
Eventually, the Steam Engine Day-- Steam Engine
Day is what it started out to be, the first
Saturday after Labor Day every fall--was moved
to a farm just west of Hesper-- about 3 miles
west of Hesper. Then it grew some more, then
the Hesper church stand came out and had a
refreshment center there, and then there were
parking people because the event was growing
and then it moved across the road just west
of Junior Dahl’s home place and grew some
more, and now more church stands and more
events, and plowing and sawing logs and threshing
grain and so on. I remember my dad, probably
in about 1957 or ‘58 brought his horse up
there and rode around, and he was on parking
patrol so, to herd the cars into the right
parking spots in the field where all the activities
were going on.
I’m not sure exactly what year it was, probably
‘58, ‘59, somewhere in that neighborhood,
Odell Lee, Sr., from Mabel, Minnesota, an
insurance man from Mabel, and some others,
came up with the idea that this thing is growing,
it’s really growing. Maybe we move it down
the hill three miles into Mabel and make a
grand festival celebration out of it.
And grand it turned out to be! In 1960 was the
first Hesper and Mabel Steam Engine Days.
And it was massive. Not only one giant, big
parade but two--each on Saturday and one on Sunday,
the one on Saturday featuring the
area high school marching bands, and in those days
there was one from every town--probably
fifteen high school marching bands,
and the Shriner Cycle Patrol.
Every 4-H club in the whole region, around Mabel
several counties, that is--was invited
to submit two things: a queen candidate for
the queen celebration, and a float. So, in
Highland Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa,
where Steam Engine Day started, we had two
4-H clubs--the Highland Hawks
and the Highland Honeybees, I believe they were called--
and
each submitted a queen candidate and a float.
And in the days just prior to Steam Engine
Days in Mabel, we would secure little garages
or sheds where we would build these floats,
all with chicken netting, stuffed with thousands
of little paper maché and little tissues
all over that would blow in the wind and fall off.
But we, as 4-H club members had a great
time. We’d bring lunch and throw tissues
at each other, have a special design. And
so in the parades were all these many, many
floats from each of these little 4-H clubs
all throughout the area.
And then there were stage shows on cement
blocks and planks and they sat outside and
there was a stage and Odell Lee, Sr. was the
MC, and he had a very gravelly voice.
He used to host the little giveaways-- or big giveaways
on Saturday nights at Mabel, when they had
cash prize giveaways. So, Odell Lee was the
MC, and he was one of the spark plugs that
would bring down Halgarden Productions and
there’d be jugglers and there’d be musicians
and there’d be a local Fiddler’s Bee and
there’d be all sorts of wonderful activities
for, on Saturday afternoon after the parade
and the queen coronation ceremony.
Sunday morning the Echiamenichal Church service,
and then eventually there’d get to be a
softball tournament, then they had a big tractor
pull, and they had so many-- quilt show, art show,
so many things going on. Of course in
those days, in 1960, Mabel had dozens and
dozens of little family farm-supported industrial
economic units that helped pitch in their
free time to make Steam Engine Days happen.
One button admitted you to the grounds.
So there was so much stuff going on, and that’s
all besides the steam engines. And then there
was the Clauson engine, and the Arnold Peterson
engine, and the Jim Sylling engine, and the
little quarter and half scales, and several
others. And they would saw logs, hooked up
to the great big shaw shaft, with a blade
about this tall. They’d thrash grain all
day on Saturday and Sunday, and many other-- helicopter rides. It was just a small county fair
well, actually a large-- they
drew thousands of people from the 1960’s on.
I came back to the area in about ‘81 and
loved Steam Engine Days because it was like
a family reunion. You’d see people you hadn’t
seen for years and years and years, dances
at the legion, people’d get together and have
a great time. Lots of food--the Lions’
chicken barbeque’s always great
on the creamery lawn. So it just kept growing
and growing and growing, and in ‘81
when I came back and bought KQ98 radio,
I started doing live
broadcasts over there.
And, I would take a cordless Marty microphone
transmitting
unit, stick it on a pitchfork pole, and reach
it out to the participants in the parade and
we broadcast the parade live on the radio
from Steam Engine Days. And one day, a guy
by the name of Roger Burn, I believe from
Winona, was coming down with the steam engines
in the beginning part of the parade in a half-scale
Avery with a little cab and it looked like
a quaint little locomotive from-- like a
choo-choo train locomotive almost, except on wheels
of course. I go up to stick his mic--put a
mic in the cab window and say, “Hey, Roger,
what kind of, you can tell us all about--”
he said, “No you come here and let me tell
you about steam engines.” So Arlene Saltau,
who has been with us for 34 years in the radio
business,
took the microphone, she did the parade,
he handed me a pair of long gloves,
said “Put these on. This is the throttle.
Slowly pull the throttle back.” And I did.
And I hear this cchhhh--tfoo, chhh-tfoo,
chh-tfoo, chh-tfoo.
Amazing what a little water--actually a lot
of water, and a lot of wood--will do in a
kind of swiss watch motion, quietly, precision
gears churning out this power from steam.
So now I’m driving this little steam engine
down the street in the Hesper-Mabel Steam
Engine Days parade--for just a little ways,
maybe 50 yards. Pushed the throttle back in
and said, “I got to go back to work,”
but I was hooked. Totally hooked. I always
loved steam engines, the older I got. The
bridge between nothing--steam engine days,
steam engines are the bridge between zero
mechanization and what we know today, in great
part because of the pump that could pump the
water into the hot boiler and especially the
injectors using the Bernoulli principle to
force cold water, heat it, and put it into
the boiler. Amazing, simple but incredibly
wonderful scientific inventions that helped
bring us from the ax (chuckles) and the horse
to the steam engine. I was always fascinated
by that.
Donnie, Jerry, and I bought a steam engine
at an auction. It needed repair. A 1914 Case
which I still have to this day. Incredible
amount of restoration and expense and time,
and I bought Donnie’s half and he bought
another Baker steam engine so that we could
increase the collection of full-scale steam
engines at Steam Engine Days, have a better
show for everybody to enjoy. Took the bunkers
off--they were sagging, down at Junior Dahl’s
shop. Had a good time putting it together.
I remember I was finishing rivets on the bunker
the night that Lady Diana got killed because
I heard it on the radio so that’s when we
put the bunkers on. Redid all the gears. The
pinion gear on the top, had it rebuilt one time
it cost $500, had to recast it another time,
I think it was like $900--the expense of these
things is enormous these days--but worth it,
because you’re preserving--I feel so strongly
about preserving these material artefacts
to demonstrate to people--my children, grandchildren,
hopefully their grandchildren and their grandchildren--what happened in the early 20th century, around
1900’s or in the late 1800’s to bring
power to the world.
So, I’ve constantly worked with others on
this Case steam engine--Joe Pearce and Mike Burgen
and many others good steam engine--I
remember the first Steam Engine Days that
I owned the 1914 Case and had trouble with
it. Quietly, all these guys in bib overalls
just slowly came over and crawled up on the
engine with their toolboxes and started tinkering
and plinking, fixing, and chuckling, and laughing,
and enjoying it, and having a great time!
I was shocked how much you could do work,
fix stuff, and have--at Steam Engine Days
every year, every engine in the smokebox in
the front had a little griddle or cradle on
which rests various kinds of food. There might
be a roast beef in one smokebox, or a roast
pork in another, a ham in another, taters
in another, veggies in another,
whatever in another, and
about six o’clock on Saturday
night--many people may not know this, but
at Steam Engine Days every year, the ladies
unload all the food out of the smokeboxes,
put it on the table, and we have a fabulous
festive steam engine-cooked evening meal.
So steam engines have been part of my life
now, as ownership, for probably about 20 years.
I had a 1924 Port Huron, had that for many
years, helped get it into good shape. Steamer
Steve Harmon has come around and helped me
with that. We’ve had lots of help from many
other good folks. Steamer Scott from Rushford
helps on the Case. But I gave the ‘24 Huron
to the Historical Society, or Toot and Whistle
Boys over in Mabel last year, with the condition
that it remains in Mabel. I also have a ¼
scale Case which appears and acts and operates
and looks and is in every detail exactly like
the full-size 1914 Case 65 horse that I have.
Keep turning John!
Turn it the other way, John!
Hurry! Hurry, John! Hurry!
How about that whistle, are you going to toot that whistle?
Toot!
Greg: Fun things we do with those at night
that sometimes-- we haven’t done it for
a while now, but, belt it up to a dynamometer,
and get it steamed up as hot and tight and
bright as you can get it, pull the throttle
open and let it smoke, and then shovel scoop
shovels full of sawdust into the firebox.
And of course now we have what we call the
spark show. And the sparks fly hundreds of
feet into the sky, and that’s a fun event
that I never knew existed among steam engine
guys. It’s a culture all its own, the steam
engine engineer gang. A quiet, well thought
out, methodical, interesting group of fellas.
And the books, when I--you have to take a
test, you have to get a boiler’s licence--one
of the books has a statement in it that says
something like, ‘any such operator who does
not manage his fusible plug in such a way
as so that the fusible plug should explode
and the pressure put out the fire is not worthy
of his day’s hire and must be released immediately.’
In the book! (chuckles) That kind of language
is what steam engineer guys like me learn from.
The fusible plug is on the top of the crown sheet
which is the firebox. You have to have
a couple inches of water on your firebox at all times.
Otherwise there’s an inversion.
700º fire, or higher, 300º steam meet together,
kapow! You don’t want that to happen. On
the firebox there’s a lead plug about the
size of a cigar. The principle behind it is
once the water level drops below the level
of the top of the fusible plug, it melts,
the steam forces itself down into the firebox,
puts the fire out, eliminates the possibility
of explosion. Very important to have--in Ohio,
the man did not have his fusible plug in working
condition, ran low, and several people got killed.
So it’s as safe as anything else, operating
a steam engine is, as long as you keep water--Mr.
Johnathan, if anybody ever asks you about
the most important and first principle of
operating a steam engine, it is keep water
on your crown sheet. So then how do they go
down the steep hills down into Highlandville
to thrash grain, go over to the Ironson’s,
go up the next hill? Because when you go downhill
the water’s always going to run to the front,
correct?
John: So then it would not be over the fusible
plug?
Greg: Correct. That’s why there’s a clevis
right between the two front wheels. The engineers
literally turn into a driveway at the top
of a big, steep hill, turn around, hook the
thrashing machine up to the nose, and back
the steam engine down these steep hills. Without
brakes--running reverse reciprocal on the
engine using that as back pressure to hold
the engine from going down the hill too fast.
Backwards! Amazing what these fellas do.
So there’s steam engines and activities
the first weekend after Labor Day
it’s incredible to me why every parent does not
bring their children over to watch this industrial
revolutionary equipment in operation.
One other thing about Steam Engine Days that’s
close to me is because I’ve been in the
broadcast business all these years-- they
used to bring down guys from CCO and other
big stations to do the MC work for the Steam
Engine Days. Randy Mirren, Hanslig Halls,
various famous personalities. And I’ll never
forget the day, it was in 1974, no, ‘73
I think it was, when I’m working at KFIL
radio in Preston, on air as a disk jockey,
and Odell Lee, jr., who I’ve seen on stage
many times, seen at the town events, comes
into the radio station to set up his ads--which
I thought that’s all he wanted to do, but
this day he said, “You know, Greg, we’ve
been talking as a committee, and a lot of
folks listen to you on the radio too, and
we wondered if you might be willing to be
our MC for the Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days
queen coronation.” And I was honored, terrified,
but agreed.
And I’ll never forget--there was a dressing
room behind the stage, and I went in there
and my knees were shaking so badly. I was
just terrified. I still have some stage fright
but I manage it better as the years go on.
But I remember the jokes I told, I remember
the crowd, the audience was massive, thousands
of people spread around in front of the stage.
And I’ve been doing that job ever since,
since 1974, with the exception, I think, of
once or twice when I asked other people on
our staff to do that job just for the experience of it.
So, I think except for three or four
times I’ve MC’ed the queen coronation
since 1974, which has been a wonderful experience
to see so many lovely people.
But probably the most important and impressive
thing about the Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine
Days: it also represents what I was talking
about earlier, the small family farms all
coming together with all the lovely, kind,
courteous business operators from the small
family towns coming together in great celebration
and great joy, working so hard and having
so much fun while teaching and preserving--
preserving this incredible, important history
for everyone else to enjoy.
So, I have thousands of other memories of
Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days but it’s
just something that’s been a-- has become--
and I don’t even think about it so much,
but it’s become a huge part of my life,
and I’m so grateful for it, I’m so grateful
that Arnold and-- Jesse McMillen was another
one, was one of the original founders, Arnold
and Jesse and Jim and Gerhard and those guys.
Little footnote about Gerhard’s engine,
his two son-in-laws now operate it, and two
of his grandchildren recently, in recent years
got engineers’ licenses so they operate
the engine. Claire and Joe the 4th, Joe Pearce
the 4th, and I believe they’re now-- which,
some of us older engineers-- the old guys
are all gone, and we’re like the second
generation of Steam Engine Days engineers--
now there are, I think about a dozen
young people--and I say young, I mean in their 20’s--who
have obtained licenses and now operate the
engines in Mabel, so they’ll be pulled out
of the museum I hope for many, many years
to come by these young people, who will hopefully
train and teach them.
Operating a steam engine is no simple trick,
I’ve found that out.
It can be done like anything else, but I’ve found it to be almost equally as challenging as learning to land
an airplane, maybe more so. The art of building
a fire, to build it level around the grate
so that cold air doesn’t seep up through
the dampers, and the art of adding water to
the boiler--the mixture of having the damper
chain so you run the damper chain one, two,
three links, maybe drip in some water to bring
the pressure down, pull the damper to bring
the pressure up, have the right kind of wood
laid in there the right way to get it all
set up so that it is a smooth, swiss-running,
chugging, happy engine.
And that’s what I am when I’m on it. Tired, but happy. (chuckles).
John: Has anybody in your family shared your
enthusiasm for the steam engine?
Greg: Absolutely not, they’re way too smart
for that!
(both laugh)
Yeah, I think there has to be some gene in
your soul or in your system that--you know,
my son, who knows everything there is to know (almost)
about all the marine corps helicopters
that were ever made, and the ones especially
now, put him on and engine last year and he
had no interest whatsoever. He wants to operate
something that goes a little faster than 3
miles an hour probably (laughs).
John: Were you more nervous flying or when
you first started working with the steam engine?
Greg: That’s a great question. I would say
it’s about equal.
Yes, anxious, courage, and attention to detail.
That’s a very good
question and both are similar in that,
if not done regularly, need to be refreshed.
So, if I’m-- if I haven’t been in an airplane
for some time, I’ll go out-- of course the
law requires you to go out if you haven’t
had three takeoffs and landings in 90 days
to not carry passengers--but I like going
out by myself that first time if I haven’t
been in for 90 days, I get down on the ground
and say “well, you did that pretty good,
you can still do that pretty well.”
But I need to know that.
And it’s the same with steam engines. The
first few days, it’s like, “oh yeah, that’s
right, that’s how you do-- oh yeah.” And
I have notes. Notes in the box of the steam
engine about what may need some simple repairs
or what might need some tweaking. And there
always is something that needs oil or grease (chuckles).
There’s about 350 gallons of
water on the engine--or, in the engine--at
312 degrees minimum, of course, and then a
couple hundred gallons of water in the bunkers,
and then you want as much good dry, hard wood,
split wood as you can available, and so...
John: Obviously steel or iron can rust when
it’s exposed to water.
Greg: Correct.
John: Do you prepare these things for storage
Greg: Yes.
John: by burning off the water or how do you...?
Greg: Excellent question. Of course, once
the water has been boiled it’s deoxidized
inside the boiler, so it’s not as corrosive.
It is somewhat corrosive, but not as corrosive.
There’s-- several of my friends, Joe and
Junior, have much better explanations
of scientific answers but, at the end of Steam Engine
Days on Monday is always the hardest day,
especially if it’s raining, because that’s
the day you drain the boilers again.
You take long brushes to clean out the flues, you want
to make sure you don’t put any water in
those flues because if there’s any residue
which is smoke related, ash related, it will
become tar and burn your pipes, and then you’ve
got a big mess. We put new pipes, new flues
in the engine, in the Case a couple times. But
we drain everything out, try to poke out all
the slag from around the bottom of the firebox.
Around the firebox are walls--two walls
inside of which is water. And so the water is all
around the firebox and on top of that sheet
that I described to you earlier. But it’s
a painstaking job to take every single valve
and turn it open and take all of the various
little things and make sure that there’s
not a drop of water anywhere in anything on
that engine because, of course, once it’s
in the museum and it’s in ten below zero
Minnesota weather, it’s going to expand
and crack or bloat. One of the things we learned,
simple little trick is, this big steam dome valve
that’s the little cupola that sits
on top of the engine where the steam is collected
before it goes into the cylinder--dry steam,
so there’s no water splashing into it.
There’s a valve on top of that which you turn open
before you operate the engine, which goes
through a thick pipe into the steam cylinder
and inserts steam into the cylinder creating
pressure to turn the wheels--to turn the bull
wheel and the fly wheel.
You don’t turn that thing all the way open
because the valve cap is kind of like a little bit of a dish,
and sometimes if you turn that valve all the
way open to drain it, there may be
just enough water sitting in the top of the valve head
that it will actually cause a crack.
Tell me about it, because I already had that happen
and I know the great expense of fixing that.
So you turn the valves, the big valves, only
halfway open to drain them.
But yes, every speck of water. We even use
wicks in the handholes at the bottom of the
firebox with long cloths and stick them in
there--after we’ve pulled out as much slag
as we can--so it drips out all the water for
corrosion.
Imagine, operating a locomotive in the winter
time, in weather that’s cold and blizzards,
where everything will freeze if you don’t
keep fire. So, engines had to be fired all
day all night, 24 hours a day around the clock,
unless they were in some roundhouse
where the temperatures were well above freezing.
Cold steel, cold water, it has to be kept warm
under all operating conditions, has to.
John: I wonder if there’s a certain personality
type that has to be involved--that’s often
involved in dangerous jobs, or potentially
dangerous jobs like flying, or working with
steam engines, or whatever it be--you have
to have the ability to pay attention to detail
Greg: Right.
and to be serious about things, and to think
ahead.
So, would you say that that’s true for steam engines?
Greg: No doubt about it. You want to think
about-- be thinking about, how long has it
been since I greased, you know, and checking
that water. There’s a water glass on the
side of the barrel, and you look over there
and you can see where the water level is and
then there’s a peg down here, a warning
peg, and if the water gets below this you’d
better be very careful, you know. And there’ve
been times when it’s been run dry. I had
a guy who was watching it for me, and he said
it was full, and I said it can’t be full,
and I looked over and it was in fact completely
empty. End of the day, low pressure.
Didn’t have the hose to pull it from the wagon. Empty
bunkers. That was very nerve-wracking, that
never happened again. I look at that water
glass at least every five minutes, maybe ten
at the least. So, yeah, details.
Yeah, I think that it does,
it does. What surprises me about both of those
things that we’re discussing--flying and
steam engine operators--it seems to me that
most of them are pretty quiet, soft spoken
people, similar to myself of course. (laughs)
My wife would disagree with that.
But, thoughtful, methodic, well-organized.
You know, like,
a good landing is a good approach. A good
flight is a good flight plan. A good result
from steam engines is to be very careful about
inspecting every detail as carefully as you
can. But really not that much different than
doing a car, the difference with the automotive
industry is that it’s taken away all the
guesswork from it. Who checks the oil anymore?
We never drove a car off the place, or a pickup
or tractor or anything, without pulling the
dipstick first. Nobody does that anymore, so.
Yeah, I think it does take a different kind
of personality, of sorts. I think anybody
can do it, but here again some people enjoy
it and some don’t enjoy the nerve-wracking
challenge of it.
John: So would you say that was the closest
call at Steam Engine Days for there being
an accident?
Greg: I don’t think there was even a close
call at that point, because there was still
plenty of water left on the crown sheet. It
was just that it looked like it was too low
to me and I didn’t like it. And that was
like in one of my very first years, before
I knew as much about as I do now, and I still
have lots and lots to learn. I don’t even
pretend that I know everything that there
is to know about them. But, for me, that was
among the most alarming. It wasn’t the most
serious, or it wasn’t serious, but it was quite alarming.
I can’t think of any other time at Steam Engine Days that was concerning to me,
other than-- there was a place where we had a little
dip that we had to run through one time, and
I had a friend steering for me and asked him
to watch the other side, and I was watching
this side, and it got too close to the other
side, and we went to back up, and I couldn’t
get the reciprocal into reverse fast enough
and we went kind of sliding back down the
hill--not far, maybe a small, little incline
for about 10 or 15 feet at the most--but that
woke me up. You know, so I’ve had a-- those
I’d say were the two times that I’ve been
awakened.
John: Of course, as a kid you probably grew
up riding around on a tractor, just holding
on to the fender or something like that, or
the front, but nowadays, is it difficult to
get insurance for all the different tractor
events at Steam Engine Days?
Greg: Well there’s multiple, there’s multiple
layers of insurance. I believe the property
owners have insurance, Hesper-Mabel Steam
Engine Days have insurance, we as private
owners have insurance on the engines--which
are really under storage insurance for 360
days a year out of-- so it isn’t terribly
expensive for those.
But, aside from the insurance, I think that
you will see, if you were to come and meet
these people who operate steam engines in
Mabel--half-scales, quarter-scales, full scales,
whatever they are--are very, very serious
about safety, almost to a fault. I mean,
we had a handhole come loose one day--it happened
to be on my engine--a guy went to tighten
up a handhole--handhole in the boiler is an
oval space, something like this, with a rubber
seal that goes in behind it, and then the
steel cap behind that, you tighten it down
with a bolt--well, that’s a tricky thing,
because oftentimes they’re too tight to
get in, too hard to get at, and when they’re
seeping or leaking, sometimes you tap it,
tap the nut with a wrench, and this particular
one wasn’t catching almost at all, and the
water wasn’t boiling yet, but it had gotten
warm and some seeped out, you know, so--but
from every little incident like that, people
become and are reminded of being
critically safe.
And there’s always people around--whenever
we’re moving engines, like in the parades
or so on, we have at least two eyes on every
on each front wheel, plus the fireman and operator,
plus the person who’s steering the engine.
So we’re always very, very careful, and
always shout an order or--this is an interesting
thing you may not know, that before you move
forward you tap twice, when you need water
you tap three times, you know, so, every time
you hear a whistle--and sometimes, like I
said, I’ve got this locomotive that came
off a--a locomotive whistle that came off
a locomotive in New York, and that thing is big.
They say that it has awakened people
in the Hesper cemetery several times, and
that’s three miles away, so it’s large.
But--of course you know that’s not true--anyway,
you could lay on that whistle, and at
Steam Engine Days, people are kind of walking around
gazing, and they just walk right out in front of you.
So, we are very, very careful.
John: You mentioned earlier that the steam
engine is kind of the bridge between modern
technology and the older technology. Do you
feel that sometimes, technology has evolved
so much that it’s hard to even--that people
just give up trying to understand it at all?
Greg: I think it’s the same as the family
farm culture that we talked about earlier.
It’s light-years from the experience of
nearly everyone on the planet. Almost no one
knows about what went from wheelbarrows and
total hand labor and cart and horse
to the steam engine--
to the steam engine, and then
to the gas engine, and to the diesel engine,
and to electric and all the other forms and
sources of energy. It think the amount of
people that are aware of this bridge from
cave people almost to where we are today
was started by this technology.
John: Then, you’ve interacted with a lot
of people over the years--and this is kind
of touching back on the farm interview that
we had before--would you say that people who
grew up on a farm are more able to troubleshoot
common problems in the--whether it be plumbing
or various issues around the...
Greg: Well I (chuckles) I don’t want to
be discriminatory to any group or culture, but
growing up on the farm, we didn’t go
to town for everything.
First we couldn’t afford it,
A. we didn’t have time. You know,
if a fence broke, you found some rusty old
barbed wire fence lying along the fence some
place and fixed that, and whatever else was fixed.
But I began driving a bundle wagon,
sitting in the tractor and just steering the
tractor between the rows of bundles when I
was four! Four years old on a bundle wagon.
So, anybody with that kind of experience from
that kind of age ongoing backing up wagons,
and I can back up a four-wheeled wagon, that
always--depending on the tractor.
You’ve got to have a good tricycle gear tractor,
preferably with power steering and good brakes,
then you can back up a four-wheeled wagon.
But, obviously, the culture enhanced the experience
that we needed to be alert to all the possible
conditions. When you had to fix something
by yourself, and fix it from what you could
find on the horizon, within your view, within
your line of sight, you were much more careful
about how you handled it to begin with.
I remember driving a school bus when I was
a young man in Waukon, and the guys in the
barn said, “We like how you drive the school bus.”
“But you only see me driving the school bus for three blocks.”
“But we see you slowing down for the bumps.” (laughs)
So that might answer your question, yes! You
do preventive maintenance, you think ahead,
you try not to wreck things and be dangerous
or destructive to property or people or things.
John: So any other memories, or any good memories
you have especially that you want to share
of Mabel Steam Engine Days? Things that you’ll
always remember?
Greg: There are so many. But I remember silly
little things, like one night, one of the
Casserton boys and I were walking down through
the midway--and they had a grand midway in
those days, lots of rides--and we were cold.
It was always the first weekend after Labor
Day, and we could see our breath. And, I’m
not sure if it froze that night, but it was
very cold, so when there’s an early frost,
I think of that day at Steam Engine Days.
I think of the time-- when I’m watching
a parade and I see the Shriners riding around
on their motorcycles doing figure eights and
what I would come to know as a Shriner myself,
motivated by Steam Engine Days parades to
join the Shrine and eventually come into the
Rochester world champion Shrine Cycle Patrol,
doing that and experiencing that myself, so
things came from there. I can’t eat barbeque
chicken without thinking of the chicken barbeque
from Hesper-Mabel Steam Engine Days!
New cars,
I remember the new cars--Chevrolet from the
Mabel Chevrolet Redwing, and Ford garage driving
the new vehicles for the next year in the parades.
Mostly seeing everyone and enjoying
such a festive time, it was almost like at
Christmas, probably in some ways better than
at Christmas.
Still, thousands come. People we don’t know
now. Before, the people were probably
the majority of the people were possibly from
within 15 miles, so. People involved with
the 4-H groups, with grandchildren, you know,
so. You knew many more people in the crowd then,
than now, because people come from a
long ways away to see this event,
which is great. I’m grateful to have gotten to be
a part of this thing, which has gotten to
be such a big part of me.
And I don’t think about it often, but when I do think about it, wow!
I’ve been involved with Steam Engine
Days in quite a few different ways
for a long, long time and I’m really happy about that.
Yeah.
John: It was one of the biggest events that
I experienced growing up, it’s something
we always looked forward to.
Greg: Yeah.
John: Would you say that there’s more interest
in the last five or six years in steam engines
than before?
Greg: Among the young people that are associated
with our group, there certainly is. It seemed
like there for a few years, there were very
few of us after the older guys were leaving,
the older generation were passing away. Junior
Dahl was the first of my generation to become
involved and then some of the younger guys,
then of course Roger gets me involved and
I helped involve a couple of other folks.
But then, now, this younger generation, the
kids of, the grandchildren of Gerhard Clausen--what
a cool thing that is, that--I’m sure he
looks down and is just tickled that his grandchildren,
what, sixty-two years later are still running
his engine, you know?
Yeah, among the engineers,
there’s more interest.
The crowds seem to be good,
especially the Saturday crowds remain huge,
the Sunday crowds aren’t quite as 
big as they used to be,
because, I think,
people have so many other activities going on,
they’ll go one time, but they’re not
going to go two times like they used to, years ago.
John: Is it interesting to you, coming back
to Spring Grove and this area, and seeing
the grandchildren and great-grandchildren
of people you once knew?
Greg: Oh yeah!
John: Seeing maybe connections like, this
one looks like your great-grandpa on your
mother’s side, and various things like that?
Greg: I can’t cite any specific examples,
but there’s been two or three times in the
last couple, three years when I will be sitting
and visiting with someone
and say, “Oh, and, who’s your dad?”
and “Oh. Who was your granddad?”
then it’ll almost shock me when I’ll say, “You know, I knew your great-grandparents very well.”
I don’t feel old. I know I’m not getting younger,
and I’m happy to not feel done yet,
I hope to have lots of years yet, but I’m 65 years
old and that is long enough around here to have known--
and I have been privileged because
of my radio business and radio career and
auctioneering and love of people, probably,
to just have been so blessed to get to know
so many good people and--the sad thing about
it, when you’re 65, so many are leaving now.
Every year, so many good, long-trusted
friends, especially in my recovery, are leaving,
you know, and, while it’s hard to see them
go, it’s so gratifying to think about
the incredible, rich blessing I’ve had to get
to know so many people and love them,
love so many people so much, and be loved.
I am--the yankee guy, Gehrig--I am the luckiest guy,
I think so, I think so. Especially considering
my history and the grace that I’ve had
to find recovery, that I was led by a cross-eyed
Norwegian guy in Wabasha, Minnesota
to a place where I could begin a brand new life.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, how wonderful.
Because Steam Engine Days has been such a
big part, such a warm part, and such a
a deeply spiritual part in a lot of ways, I
am really grateful--probably the most grateful
that it will probably continue a long time.
These new, young engineers
with their new licenses and eagerness to--
and they’re good.
They learn fast, they work hard,
they’re careful and cautious, you know.
So that now this engine, this 1914 Case which I’ve had
about 20 years, two gears are still, right
now, being cast, two different gears.
And you always say (knocks on wood) maybe we’re
done after this. Of course you never are.
But really, we’re getting that engine just
about to almost completely brand new condition
put a totally different boiler from Canada under
it a couple years ago. If treated well and
cared for like we will, and I see no reason
why the younger folks coming along won’t
do so, that engine could last for literally
hundreds of years. It’s only watered up
and fired up three or four days a year. It
could literally last for hundreds of years
and carry this message of industrialization
from-- so I think about Steam Engine Days,
I’m happy to believe that it’s going to
go on for a long time,
even though the town is getting smaller.
John: Thank you.
Greg: You’re welcome. Thank you, very much.
/Credits roll, music plays/
