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Steam Machines at fair offer up popcorn, history lesson
By Kalea Hall
CANFIELD
Canfield Fair Sept. 2, 2017
Gallery
Popcorn pieces are scattered throughout the grounds near the antique tractors and steam engines on display at the Canfield Fair.
The steam popcorn machine powered by compressed air is a crowd favorite.
The Hacon family has been a fixture at the fair for 35 years.
“We let people celebrate yesteryear,” said Terry Hacon, whose late father, Thomas J. Hacon, built and brought the steam engines to the fair.
Thomas and Terry started to build steam engines in the late 1970s.
“He did it from memory,” Terry said. “He always loved them [steam engines].”
When Terry graduated and went to the U.S. Marine Corps, his father started to display the engines at the fair.
After a few years, he decided to bring in a machine that popped corn to show fairgoers what the steam engines could do.
He did a lot of research to find out the best popcorn, and the crowd loved it.
Thomas became known as the popcorn man, offering up a free taste of how popcorn used to be made. When the popcorn man died in early 2013, Terry took on the role at the fair.
“This is the way you make popcorn,” Terry said. “This isn’t digital popcorn. It’s real popcorn. We should definitely look back and understand where we came from.”
Terry explains the history of his popcorn machine to visitors as he pours in some vegetable oil, lets it warm up, puts the popcorn kernels in, turns on the steam and shakes the popcorn a bit. Soon a crowd appears because of the alluring smell.
After a short period, the kernels are popped and ready to be enjoyed, but some pieces do hit the floor making popcorn confetti appear.
Kitty Hacon helps her husband by refilling the popcorn bowl when it runs out. She used to be Thomas’ “popcorn partner.”
“It’s fun and nice to see the little kids get so excited,” Kitty said.
This year, there are 287 antique tractors and 70 antique gas engines on display in the antique equipment section of the fair, located in the southeast corner of the fairgrounds.
There’s threshing and bailing and sawmilling on display. There’s also a 1926 dirt excavator and a 1900 oil field display.
“It shows how oil was produced in the early 1900s,” said Shawn Watson, announcer in the antique equipment section. “We want to make sure that we don’t lose the history of America. We do this to educate people on the workings of machinery of yesteryear.”
The antique equipment display is on from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the fair.