FARMINGTON – Follow the golden beams of sunlight that stream in through the wide barn doors, thrown them open for a warm welcome, and it’s like taking a step back in time.

The date, it seems, is 1930, give or take 20 years. The place, a Maine farm kitchen, pantry and barn where people work for their supper 16 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Two gigantic ice saws, big as a man and with knobby sharp teeth, hang on the wall. An assortment of farm machinery, like plows, wood splitters and a wagon for going to town fill the room with iron and thick, brawny wood.

It’s hard to believe that what you are standing in actually is just a museum and not a working Maine barn circa 1930.

And that’s the goal behind the Agricultural Farm Museum, which is owned by the Franklin County Agricultural Society and sits in a brand-new $40,000 wooden barn constructed this past spring at the Farmington Fairgrounds.

To give visitors a true slice of life of what washing clothes was like before the Laundromat, what getting ice was like before it clinked and clanked out of the maker in the refrigerator door, and what working for your supper was like before you could just hop in the truck and go pick up a pizza.

For months now, a committee of 12 or so has been rummaging through dusty attics and encouraging everyone they know to do the same in order to get the museum doors open in time for this year’s Farmington Fair, which runs Sept. 14 through 20. They’ve built up quite a collection.

“There are so many things that went on in the area that the younger generation and those who just moved here don’t know about,” says Marj Goodwin, as she tries without much luck to wrench old rusty nails from an antique wooden ironing board. Things aren’t built like they used to be, she jokes. “We don’t want to lose our heritage and this is a good way to preserve it.”

Stopping only to swat away barn flies and take deep gulps from a Dixie cup of iced tea, members of the farm museum committee build shelves, dust and oil antiques and plot where each piece of the collection will be placed.

“I think people today should know how hard people had to work in the past,” says Dawn Pratt as she tries and make sense of a pile of kitchen utensils.

The non-profit museum has been in the works for years and committee organizer Dick Hall, Gloria’s other-half, says it was the vision of Robert McCleery, famed for his work for the Farmington Fire Department and as an fair organizer. “This was an idea started by Bob,” Hall says, remembering the beloved man who died last summer. “More or less, we are doing it in his honor as a way to try and fulfill his wish.”

The museum will be open through fair week for free and throughout the year by request.

Gloria thinks it will be a popular place. “A lot of people will come,” she predicts. “Especially the seniors. It will be a walk down memory lane for the them.”

For more information or to make a donation, contact Ron and Lorene Pratt at 778-3994, Andy and Dawn Pratt at 684-3333 or Dick and Gloria Hall at 645-4608.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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