Seven Springs festival draws big crowd Saturday
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on May 15, 2016 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Don and Lynne Jackson laugh as Don tells the story of how the couple met Saturday during Ole Timey Days. They've been married 41 years and met when he helped pull her car from a ditch.
SEVEN SPRINGS -- Anyone in the town of Seven Springs on Saturday might have mistakenly thought they had been transported back into the 1950s -- and no one could blame them for it.
Seven Springs held its largest-ever "Ole Timey Days" event for the 16th year in a row. Classic cars, old-school tractors and more flocked to Main Street to give Wayne County residents a taste of the past.
"This event was started by Ola Mae Adams, and she started it because we are the oldest town in Wayne County," said Ronda Hughes, this year's event organizer.
Mrs. Hughes said 120 vendor spots were filled for the day's festival, and she was unable to keep up with the large number of people in attendance.
"Thank goodness that we've had good weather," Mrs. Hughes said. "It was slow at first, but then it picked up and there's been a steady flow of people in and out all day."
Danny Carter had his mini-pulling tractors on display -- tractors built to a 1/4 scale of a full-size tractor. The miniature tractors are used for competitive sled-pulling.
"I got into it just seeing other people doing it," Carter said. "A fella asked if I wanted to pull when I was watching him, so I did a full pull, and then went and got my checkbook and bought it from him right there on the spot."
The tractors come stock with 12 horsepower, and then are customized to get more pulling power out of the engine.
"We soup 'em up and get everything we can out of them," Carter said.
His miniature tractors range from 12 horsepower all the way up to 120 horsepower.
Just down Main Street, Doug Jones was showing off his "Fordzilla" tractor -- a red and white Ford tractor souped up to have 300 horsepower and travel up to 50 miles per hour.
Jones said it can go faster, but not without the consequence of ripping out the rear end.
"It overpowers the gears in the rear and it'll rip it out if I go too fast," Jones said.
It took Jones two years to build the tractor, and he said it was a rust bucket when he first bought it.
"I bought it and it was so rusted when I brought it home my wife asked me how much they paid me to haul it off for them," Jones said. "I took it apart and put it all back together."
A company in California named Flat Head City built the 300-horsepower engine that gives the tractor its mojo.
Bands performed on Main Street throughout the day in front of the Southern Bank and the Neuse River Trading store, which is owned by Mrs. Hughes.
Seven Springs Mayor Stephen Potter opened the day's festivities at 10 a.m. The festival ran until 3 p.m., and the day capped off with a street dance from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.