Lewiston, Illinois, childhood home of Edgar Lee Masters, will hold the 19th annual Masters Day celebration this Saturday.
In honor of the famously cynical poet, local actors in costume will give dramatic readings of Masters’ Spoon River Anthology in the cemetery, the city council will honor local poets for their work, and “members and friends of the South Fulton Antique Tractor Club and Old Iron Club will show their equipment from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. ”
“It used to be kind of a big deal with food and vendors and stuff,” a Lewiston city hall representative said over the phone, “but it’s kind of died out. The tractor people are the only ones left really holding out.”
The Canton Daily Ledger has a full schedule of events here.
Childhood home, perhaps, but let it be pointed out for the folks back home that Edgar Lee Masters was was born in Garnett, Kansas, which has another mechanical competition tie in: Garnett was home in the 1960s of the Lake Garnett Raceway, about which you may learn more here: http://www.chuckbrandt.com/lakegarnett.htm