Busy with boxes

That’s a lot of bananas.

Except the Dole banana boxes in the back of the trailer don’t hold bananas.

They hold vintage and antique linens — tablecloths, napkins, doilies and more — that make up the inventory for Mary Harris’s booth at the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Show this week.

Sunday afternoon it was all hands on deck for Harris and her family, erecting a tent, setting up tables, covering them, then unloading box after box and setting the wares out for display.

“It’s a family affair,” says her sister Linda Williams. The family is making a special effort to pitch in this year after the death of Mary’s husband.

“I like the linens,” says Mary, a Celina, Ohio, resident. “There’s all kind of goodies, but linens are my …”

Downfall?

“Downfall.”

With temperatures approaching 90, the work could be exhausting. But sister Linda wasn’t shy about cracking the whip.

“You’re gonna get a board on you if you don’t get up,” she zinged one family member who had taken a short break in a chair.

So the work continued and the Dole boxes kept coming out and getting unpacked until the job was done.

“The worst part,” says Mary’s son Rodney Rider, “is you gotta come back in a week and take it all down.”

Well, maybe not all of it. Some of it should be sold by then.