This year marked the 30th Anniversary for Olde Tyme Days!
This year’s Olde Tyme Days was held on August 15-17 at 700 Canal Road in Dover, PA and boasted old-fashioned fun for the entire family. Gates opened by 8am and admission was only $2, with special early morning free admission both Saturday and Sunday. Everyone received a program of events with coupons and info on many of the vendors. And the weather couldn’t have been nicer; low 80s during the day and high 60s in the evenings. It was definitely not typical for August here in York County, but it was very pleasant and I am sure it contributed to the great turnout all weekend.
The event featured all sorts of historic power equipment – from steam power, hit and miss engines, farm tractors, garden tractors and so much more. This year’s feature was International Harvester. All along the walkways you could see working equipment demonstrations and displays. Everywhere you looked there was a tractor of some sort, many times driving down the aisle past you as you walked around. The sounds of steam, engines and pistons were all around and gave a very down home atmosphere to the event.
The auction on Saturday morning was a huge hit! It started at 8am and was still going at 4:30pm when we arrived for the afternoon. There was an entire field full of tractors and equipment for the auction, so I am sure many people were able to snag some good deals on great equipment.
Kids sure had a blast at the event. There were train rides Friday afternoon and all day Saturday and Sunday, hay rides all day Saturday and many more fun activities throughout the event. The booth for kids to make their own jump rope was very popular and it made me want to be a kid again for sure! Really, I was jealous and wanted to make one, but being a “kid at heart” didn’t count. There was also a bag toss game at one booth were kids had a chance to win a gift card to Toys ‘R Us, pony rides, a petting zoo and D.J. Pebbles with her puppets just to name a few.
But this event wasn’t just for the kids, people of all ages had a great time. There were tons of food vendors to make anyone drool…soft pretzels, fried veggies, french fries, funnel cake, pit beef, bbq pulled pork, turkey legs, shaved ice, burgers, hot dogs and even ice cream. Everywhere you walked you could smell something fantastic, and everyone knows there isn’t anything quite like fair food! There were vendors selling all kinds of items, from bicycles, crafts and antiques to tractor parts and supplies. It was like a craft show, flea market and supply store all rolled into one.
A tractor parade took place both Friday and Saturday afternoon as well as tractor pulls and live entertainment. Sunday featured a truck pull and a tractor giveaway along with other raffle drawings. This was the first tractor pull event that I had ever attended, and I have to say it was pretty cool! You end up hoping that each one makes it further than the last, and you feel bad when someone doesn’t get very far before the tractor gives up. I can see why there was a large crowd for this event because it was quite fun to watch.
Moove In Self Storage was represented at the event this year. We ran a full page color ad in the program booklet and attended the event both Friday and Saturday afternoons. I was there with our Greenbriar Road property manager, Suzi Conner to hand out goody bags to attendees and offer Free Photos with our cow mascot! Check out some of the photos below, our mascot is always a hit with the kids, and the free photos were a hit with the parents this year. We plan to have a booth at next year’s event, and bring back the free photos with our mascot since they were so popular.
If you weren’t able to make it out to Olde Tyme Days this year, I highly recommend you plan to attend next year. There is so much to do, so many vendor booths to peruse, plenty of delicious food and a great atmosphere for the entire family…and don’t forget about the tractor pulls! I am so glad I can finally say I got to see one, and that I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait for next year!
