From the Yakima Herald-Republic Online News.

Posted on Friday, July 24, 2009

The Tuesday Crew-- Volunteers keep things running at Ag museum
by Gordon King
Yakima Herald-Republic

 

UNION GAP, Wash. -- The old outhouse hadn't looked this good in years.

It got a new roof and a new floor. The two cracked concrete stools were replaced with new wooden ones. The old doors were refitted with handles. It was hosed off, inside and out.

"It's ready to go," Bill Driskill declared after the wash job, adding, "You can move it with a forklift and put it anyplace you want."

Working on Tuesday mornings, Driskill, 75, and Royce Baker, 83, finished the job in three weeks at the Central Washington Agricultural Museum.

They're part of what's known as the Tuesday Crew at the Union Gap museum.

Most Tuesdays about 30 men -- many more than 70 years old, some 80 or more and at least one over 90 -- gather to do what needs to be done to keep the museum going. They include retired farmers, a tire salesman, a carpenter, a roofer, a sawyer and a farmer-turned-neuropsychologist.

The projects may be installing toilets or making a rusty 80-year-old binding machine work. A decades-old sawmill was reassembled and put into working order so they could slice logs into boards. Antique farm equipment is made to run again. Picnic tables are painted. Outhouses are repaired.

"I don't know why we picked Tuesday. It just kinda grew over the years," says Bob Eschbach, 84, the only surviving founder of the 30-year-old museum. "The first volunteers here were farmers and they would show up any day they had a free day. We just ended up concentrating on Tuesdays. It seemed to be a convenient time."

 

The Tuesday Crew's pace is unhurried. They start drifting into the museum meeting room for coffee and cookies about 8 a.m. The conversation ranges from farm equipment to fishing to who's in the hospital.

Work begins about 8:30 with people dispersing to their respective projects. Few walk; nearly everyone drives the couple hundred yards to where much of the work is done. Most drive pickups.

The projects may be something of their own choosing. Ray Kempf, 83, has been restoring a century-old silo for the past 16 months. Ken Matthew, 82, works on the sawmill he helped reassemble. Or, volunteers may be asked by museum president Nick Schultz to do a particular job. On recent Tuesdays volunteers have been sought to install toilets, hoe the corn patch and paint benches.

Tuesday Crew members may work slowly, but they work hard and expertly. Baker easily builds a new floor for the old outhouse. Out in the nearby hayfield, Alvin Oswalt, 67, bucks 70-pound bales of hay. Dick Drew, with advice from 93-year-old John Schilperoort, revives an 80-year-old wheat binder. ("All it needed was a new canvas," Drew explained later.) A week later Drew, 73, loaded bundles of wheat onto a tractor-drawn wagon.

At 10 a.m. they break for more coffee, cookies and conversation. The cookies, brought in by the crew, are mostly store-bought but sometimes homemade. A half-hour later, the Tuesday Crew members again clamber into their pickups for the drive back to the job site. They knock off for lunch at noon. Some may head home then, but some work until midafternoon. "At 3:30 the joke is they get homesick," says Eschbach. By 4 p.m. most everyone is gone.

 

Drew -- a farmer-turned-psychologist specializing in neurobiological brain disorders -- recognizes the measured pace of work at the museum. "We're there to enjoy what we do. There's no big push. There's no time pressure. If you don't want to do it, you don't."

He's been a part of the Tuesday Crew for 15 years. His stint started when he needed help repairing an old binder he'd bought. Appealing to the museum, he met Schilperoort, who helped him repair the binder. Drew has turned out for the Tuesday Crew ever since.

"A huge part of (the Tuesday work days) is the camaraderie," says Drew. "Farmers enjoy each other's company. I never laugh so much as I do on Tuesdays."

Though summer is the busiest time of year for the Tuesday Crew, they get together year-round, says Eschbach. "Rain or shine or snow, it doesn't much matter. Vacations or hunting season sometime interfere, but not much."

But, says Drew, "sometimes in the winter we just sit and drink coffee all day."

Don Frederick, 79, is a 12-year veteran of the Tuesday Crew. A retired Boise Cascade worker, Frederick says he just likes agriculture and being around and working on the old farm equipment. And, he says, "This is my grand outing each week. A person has to have something to do when he retires."

 

About the museum

Central Washington Agricultural Museum contains a diverse collection of old farm equipment inside covered buildings and in outdoor displays. Its biggest annual event, the Antique Power Show Expo, will be Aug. 15-16, featuring a tractor pull, parade, wheat harvesting, a flea market, food vendors and live entertainment.

Where: 4508 Main St., Union Gap

Info: 509-457-8735, www.centralwaagmuseum.org

Hours: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays; walk-through visitors welcomed during daylight hours. Call ahead for tours.

Museum admission: Free, donations welcome. Admission to the Antique Power Show: $5.
Dick Drew, left, and Lawrence Mills pull straw from a 1930s-era binder they're trying to make work at a July 7 work day. Drew has been going to the Tuesday work crew for about 15 years while Mills, a retired maintenance mechanic and electronics technician, has been going for nearly a year.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Dick Drew, left, and Lawrence Mills pull straw from a 1930s-era binder they're trying to make work at a July 7 work day. Drew has been going to the Tuesday work crew for about 15 years while Mills, a retired maintenance mechanic and electronics technician, has been going for nearly a year.
Don Frederick, 79, chats with others during morning coffee. Nearly everyone wears a ball cap though some wear straw hats. He's been a part of the Tuesday crew 12 years.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Don Frederick, 79, chats with others during morning coffee. Nearly everyone wears a ball cap though some wear straw hats. He's been a part of the Tuesday crew 12 years. "I don't do as much as I used to," he says. He's in charge of the museum's windmill.
Jim Warner, right, talks during the 10 a.m. coffee break of the Tuesday crew at Central Washington Agriculture Museum. Jobs that need doing are posted on a large sheet of paper propped up on the table. On Tuesday, June 30, people were needed to install some new, elevated toilets at the museum.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Jim Warner, right, talks during the 10 a.m. coffee break of the Tuesday crew at Central Washington Agriculture Museum. Jobs that need doing are posted on a large sheet of paper propped up on the table. On Tuesday, June 30, people were needed to install some new, elevated toilets at the museum.
Ken Matthew marks the cuts he's going to make on a log he is sawing into long planks on Tuesday, July 7. He's using the sawmill he helped reassemble at the agriculture musuem. Matthew, 82, began helping out at the museum eight years ago when he began work on the mill.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Ken Matthew marks the cuts he's going to make on a log he is sawing into long planks on Tuesday, July 7. He's using the sawmill he helped reassemble at the agriculture musuem. Matthew, 82, began helping out at the museum eight years ago when he began work on the mill.
Bill Driskill, 79, laughs at a joke during coffee time before starting work on Tuesday, July 7. The morning conversation runs the gamut from power tools to haying to hospital visits.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Bill Driskill, 79, laughs at a joke during coffee time before starting work on Tuesday, July 7. The morning conversation runs the gamut from power tools to haying to hospital visits.
At 67 years of age, Alvin Oswalt is still bucking 70-pound bales of hay. He moves bales of hay from a forklift onto a truck during a July 7, 2009 Tuesday work session. And though he's old enough to collect Social Security, Oswalt calls himself
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
At 67 years of age, Alvin Oswalt is still bucking 70-pound bales of hay. He moves bales of hay from a forklift onto a truck during a July 7, 2009 Tuesday work session. And though he's old enough to collect Social Security, Oswalt calls himself "one of the young pups around here."
Royce Baker emerges from the outhouse he's restoring, wiping the dust off his head knocked down by Bill Driskill working on the roof of the old outhouse. Baker is 83 and Driskill, 79. They replaced the floor and put new shingles on the roof and reinforced a portion of the inside of the outhouse.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Royce Baker emerges from the outhouse he's restoring, wiping the dust off his head knocked down by Bill Driskill working on the roof of the old outhouse. Baker is 83 and Driskill, 79. They replaced the floor and put new shingles on the roof and reinforced a portion of the inside of the outhouse.
Tuesday crew workers are supposed to sign in on a sheet by the front door of the museum's meeting room where they gather for coffee and lunch.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Tuesday crew workers are supposed to sign in on a sheet by the front door of the museum's meeting room where they gather for coffee and lunch.
(L-R) Dick Drew, John Schilperoort and Lawrence Mills labor to make a 1930s-era binder work during a Tuesday work day the Central Washington Agriculture Museum. At 93, Schilperoort is the oldest worker during the weekly work days. He figures he first drove a binder in 1935.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
(L-R) Dick Drew, John Schilperoort and Lawrence Mills labor to make a 1930s-era binder work during a Tuesday work day the Central Washington Agriculture Museum. At 93, Schilperoort is the oldest worker during the weekly work days. He figures he first drove a binder in 1935.
(L-R) Wade Adams, Ken Matthew and Don Frederick take a late-morning break from sawing logs during a Tuesday work day June 30, 2009. After a brief discussion they decided to knock off for the day.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
(L-R) Wade Adams, Ken Matthew and Don Frederick take a late-morning break from sawing logs during a Tuesday work day June 30, 2009. After a brief discussion they decided to knock off for the day.
Ray Cook, 67, uses an antique forklift to move an old outhouse during the Tuesday crew work day at Central Washington Agriculture Museum. Cook has been volunteering at the Tuesday gathering for four years.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Ray Cook, 67, uses an antique forklift to move an old outhouse during the Tuesday crew work day at Central Washington Agriculture Museum. Cook has been volunteering at the Tuesday gathering for four years. "I'm one of the young ones - I'm under 70," he said, chuckling.
Ken Matthew adjusts the size of the cut on the sawmill on June 30, 2009. Logs were being cut one-eighth-inch too thick during a Tuesday work day at the Central Washington Agriculture Museum.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
Ken Matthew adjusts the size of the cut on the sawmill on June 30, 2009. Logs were being cut one-eighth-inch too thick during a Tuesday work day at the Central Washington Agriculture Museum.
John Schilperoort, 93, left, and Ev Jenkins, 82, talk during the 10 a.m coffee break during a Tuesday work day in June. The work day starts with coffee at 8 a.m. followed by the midmorning coffee break. Lunch break is usually at noon.
GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic
John Schilperoort, 93, left, and Ev Jenkins, 82, talk during the 10 a.m coffee break during a Tuesday work day in June. The work day starts with coffee at 8 a.m. followed by the midmorning coffee break. Lunch break is usually at noon.
Links
See the Tuesday Crew