July 9, 2019 at 5:14 p.m.
Models of memories
Hand-built replicas on display in Classics area
Models of memories
The old farmhouse at 5690 E. 500 North is no longer standing.
Neither is the red barn that accompanied it. Nor the garage. Nor the outhouse.
But they live on. And not just in the memories of the children who grew up there.
All of the structures, in pin-framed model form, are on display this week in the Classics Tent at the Jay County Fair.
The entire display of the Cletus and Esther (Schmit) May property was created by their son, Ben, as a project in his retirement.
It started with the two-story barn, complete with a see-through removable roof and beams held together with tiny wooden pegs. It includes stalls for farm animals, grain bins and lofts.
When he finished that, he moved on to the house. Then the garage. Then the outhouse.
All from memory.
The buildings in which Cletus and Esther raised their nine children — seven boys and two girls — are no longer standing.
Neither is the red barn that accompanied it. Nor the garage. Nor the outhouse.
But they live on. And not just in the memories of the children who grew up there.
All of the structures, in pin-framed model form, are on display this week in the Classics Tent at the Jay County Fair.
The entire display of the Cletus and Esther (Schmit) May property was created by their son, Ben, as a project in his retirement.
It started with the two-story barn, complete with a see-through removable roof and beams held together with tiny wooden pegs. It includes stalls for farm animals, grain bins and lofts.
When he finished that, he moved on to the house. Then the garage. Then the outhouse.
All from memory.
The buildings in which Cletus and Esther raised their nine children — seven boys and two girls — are no longer standing.
Ben is shy when it comes to attention, but his sister, Ginger Loy, is happy to share the story.
“I think it’s pretty special,” she said. “Ben doesn’t think so. Ben goes, ‘You guys are making far too much of this.’”
The buildings came to be at the fairgrounds this week after Loy shared the tale of their creation with her brother-in-law Bob Lyons, a fair board member. Lyons seized on the opportunity
“Everything works, and it’s to scale, and it’s like their barn was,” he said. “I thought it’d be kind of neat.”
So Lyons arranged for it to be on display in the Classics Tent — north of the midway near the East Arena — this week as a Jay County Historical Society exhibit. The structures will later go to the historical society for display at its museum, and then eventually to Ben’s younger brother Ed “Joe” Loy of Jay County to keep.
Ben, who attended elementary school in St. Anthony and high school in Coldwater before a career that included working at GE and running a mobile home business with his brother-in-law, recreated the house in detail. It includes gutters and downspouts, windows that open and close, and transoms. The pieces that represent the slate roof are all hand-cut.
A Calhoun, Georgia, resident since 1973, Ben didn’t stop there. He added interior details, recreating the furniture down to having “The Lone Ranger” on the television set.
The house is on display in three pieces — the removable roof, the second floor and the first floor. When put all together, even the lights shine inside.
As Ginger looks at replicas of the buildings in which she grew up, the memories come flooding back. She talks about running into her brothers’ room when she was scared during storms and Cletus leading the rosary at night with his children kneeling around the family table.
And “the garage, Lord Almighty, how we used to love — it would rain on that tin roof. We loved playing in that garage,” she said. “I don’t even remember having a car in there. It just seemed like it was always us kids.”
Plans call for the buildings to be on display at a get-together later this year to allow children, grandchildren and other extended family to see them before they head to Jay County Historical Museum.
“I think it’s pretty special,” she said. “Ben doesn’t think so. Ben goes, ‘You guys are making far too much of this.’”
The buildings came to be at the fairgrounds this week after Loy shared the tale of their creation with her brother-in-law Bob Lyons, a fair board member. Lyons seized on the opportunity
“Everything works, and it’s to scale, and it’s like their barn was,” he said. “I thought it’d be kind of neat.”
So Lyons arranged for it to be on display in the Classics Tent — north of the midway near the East Arena — this week as a Jay County Historical Society exhibit. The structures will later go to the historical society for display at its museum, and then eventually to Ben’s younger brother Ed “Joe” Loy of Jay County to keep.
Ben, who attended elementary school in St. Anthony and high school in Coldwater before a career that included working at GE and running a mobile home business with his brother-in-law, recreated the house in detail. It includes gutters and downspouts, windows that open and close, and transoms. The pieces that represent the slate roof are all hand-cut.
A Calhoun, Georgia, resident since 1973, Ben didn’t stop there. He added interior details, recreating the furniture down to having “The Lone Ranger” on the television set.
The house is on display in three pieces — the removable roof, the second floor and the first floor. When put all together, even the lights shine inside.
As Ginger looks at replicas of the buildings in which she grew up, the memories come flooding back. She talks about running into her brothers’ room when she was scared during storms and Cletus leading the rosary at night with his children kneeling around the family table.
And “the garage, Lord Almighty, how we used to love — it would rain on that tin roof. We loved playing in that garage,” she said. “I don’t even remember having a car in there. It just seemed like it was always us kids.”
Plans call for the buildings to be on display at a get-together later this year to allow children, grandchildren and other extended family to see them before they head to Jay County Historical Museum.
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