By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
BREMEN — In 2000, Kent Koontz decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Koontz Hardware in Bremen with a classic tractor show.
Seven years later now, it has become one of the rites of late summer in downtown.
“We always try to keep it the same weekend,” he said. “We don’t want to conflict with any of the other things going on (between the Labor Day Blueberry Festival and Apple Fest in Nappanee two weeks later). Everybody keeps wanting to come back.”

Motors used on the farm are a highlight of the show in front of Koontz’s main street store. One friend that keeps coming back is Mike McGowan of Wyatt. A young man of 98, those at the show say he knows more about how the old engines on display work than anyone else.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said. “It just brings back some old memories for me. I like watching people look at (the motors). When they first come by, you can tell by the look on their face they don’t know what that thing is.
“That was my first engine right there,” he said pointing at a machine idling just in front of him at the curb. “I remember when I was a kid, taking one of these, hooking it to a carriage and putting a manure spreader on it. I guess that was kind of like my first tractor.”
McGowan says it took some time but his father came around to the way the motors could help around the farm.
“He loved the horses,” he said. “Eventually he saw what the motors could do and he came around.”
Eventually all farmers would come around.
“People have to remember that farmwork used to be just plain drudgery,” said Bill Swan of Wyatt, another expert on the old hit or miss flywheel engines. “These machines made a lot of things possible.”
One thing the show makes possible is a big reason why Koontz will keep having it.
“People get a chance to get together and visit,” he said. “That’s one reason why we do it. As long as they keep coming, I suppose we’ll keep having it.”