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This year's Antique Engine Show from the Marshall County Antique Power Association will be a bittersweet one for the group. It not only will be a celebration of one of their great interests in life, it also will be a celebration of association founder Gary Shreve, who died May 15.
Shreve's widow, Kathy Shreve, said it was important to hold this year's event in part to memorialize a person who meant so much to the group.
"Our treasurer, who is also his best friend, decided to have this," she said. "I wasn't sure I could handle the show. And he said 'well, let's still have the show and have it in Gary's honor.' So that's why we're putting it in his memory."
The last thing Kathy Shreve said her husband would want is for the show to go dormant. So, the show will go on.
"He would want us to do that," she said.
The show will be held June 21-22 at the old Bishop Donahue High School football field in McMechen. Kathy Shreve said guests are welcome from "daylight to dark," and the kitchen at the field will be hopping in the morning to offer breakfast.
The antique engines that will be on display over that weekend are those that powered machines in the days before electricity, Kathy Shreve said. They ran washing machines and hay balers. The gas-driven engines sported a flywheel and usually had a pulley hooked up to them. The engine show features a different make of engine each year, and the 2024 show will feature Maytag engines. Shreve said she expects 50 to 60 engines to be on display.
From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, the District BBQ food truck will be on site featuring its pulled pork sandwiches. All proceeds from food truck sales will go back to the Marshall County Antique Power Association.
The show will be open rain or shine and there is no admission fee to enter. The public is welcome. For more information, call Rick Noll at 304-243-1374.
Kathy Shreve hopes to see plenty of people stop by for the show, to share in an interest that has captivated everyone in the Marshall County Antique Power Association and was such a joy for her husband for so many years.
"A friend sort of dared him to start this, and then he said 'you know, with your help, we'll do it.' So it just sort of went on from there," she said. "We've been fortunate. We've met some wonderful, wonderful people."