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Morris Kurzuk's chuck wagon find (con't)
He’s a member in good standing at the Essex County Steam & Gas Engine Museum.His own collection is called Kurzuk’s Antique Power Collection and he often entertains visitors at his great rural museum. He’s only too proud to show off his mostly restored collection, an amazing testament to farm life and probably one of the best private collections anywhere. But today he’s calling to say that he has discovered the old chuck wagon in a barn in Leamington. “The fellow (who owned it) passed away and his son didn’t want it,” Morris says. “You have to scrape the old paint off. I want to make it as professional as I can.” Whether he will enter it for a local chuck wagon race isn’t clear. But Morris likes the finishes. “The wood is really weathered but it’s oak...just like iron.” The wheels, which measure as high as four feet - the rear ones larger than the front – are also on the wagon. It even has brakes. Morris is thinking of painting it but may change his mind. ”My daughter in law came here – ‘No, no’, she says.”Don’t paint it, leave it as it is.’” Morris says that, come to think of it, one of the most admired tractors in his collection happens to be a vehicle he never repainted. Even though his repainted tractors are of the same age people think the unpainted one is older because it looks more authentic. How did he find the chuck wagon? It’s almost as if it found him. Anyone in the farm heritage community knows Morris. “When you collect antiques like that it seems like you’re a magnet,” he says. People are always telling him at the steam club, “I know where you can get this, I know where you can get that.” In any case, Morris’s chuck wagon should be completely refurbished by spring, new coat of paint or not. As for a chuck wagon race, check back with him. WindsorOntarioNews.com |
