by Luke Voogt
The Geelong Classic Truck and Machinery Show is the place to be for Angela Reynolds, as she prepares to welcome her firstborn in February.
She and partner Tom Lord have been reading tractor stories to their soon-to-be-born babe in hope of raising a little engine enthusiast.
“I’m still driving the tractors around,” Angela said.
“We’re getting it around as many steam engines as we can and getting it used to the noise.”
This weekend’s show, the biggest event of the year for Geelong vintage machinery lovers, was the latest step in the couple’s plan, Angela explained.
“We’ll be running the boiler house this weekend,” she said.
“Whether it’s a boy or a girl, it’s going to be out there in overalls. That’s the plan. We’re doing our best to get it obsessed already.”
Angela, who grew up in North Geelong, met Tom through the vintage machinery section of Royal Geelong Agricultural and Pastoral Society.
They announced the pregnancy last year in a video of them on a tractor with a baby capsule.
“There was bound to be some sort of machinery involved,” Angela said.
But the symbolism was lost on vintage section members and her friends, she explained.
“They’re steam enthusiasts, so they were just looking at the traction engine and didn’t notice the baby capsule,” she laughed.
“And my friend’s aren’t steam enthusiasts, so they didn’t watch video at all.”
Angela looked forward to seeing young families at the show and the variety of machinery on display.
“Anything I can drive myself is my favourite, particularly anything I can start and operate myself,” she said.
“Some of the steam engines in the pavilion are more than 150-years-old and we know the Geelong factories that they come from – so there’s a real story there.”
The vintage section had a great sense of comradery, she said.
“Everyone has got different interests, skills and backgrounds, but we still all come together.”
Their baby, due at the end of February, would be the first born into the club for “some time”, Angela said.
Vintage section chairman Steve Moore believed the couple’s child would be the first born to two active members of the group in its 52-year history.
“We’ll have a new enthusiast on our hands,” he said.
He encouraged locals to visit Geelong Classic Truck and Machinery Show, which runs from 9am to 4pm this Saturday and Sunday at Geelong Showgrounds.
The show features classic trucks and cars, vintage farm machinery, historic steam engines and a variety of other displays.
“If you like machinery large and small, there will be something on display to interest you,” he said.
Entry is $10 and free for children under 15.
