Drivin’ Steel – Classic Photo, September 27, 2017
Drivin’ Steel – Classic Photo, September 27, 2017
This week’s Classic Photo has the man on the right caught mid-swing driving a stake, while two others watch. Speculation at The Nashville News office was that this photo may have been taken at DuBois Center, because of the look of the building behind them, but there was no identifying information with the photo, so that’s just a guess. Do you remember what is happening here or recognize one of those shown here? Please let us know!
Classic Photo Response:
The September 27, 2017 Classic Photo showed three men, one of whom was swinging a hammer. After people had received their papers, we started getting calls about the photo. We at The Nashville News had speculated that the photo was taken at DuBois Center, and our first call, from Priscilla Self, confirmed that.
“It’s at one of the early DuBois Center Fall Festivals, probably early-80’s, I think,” said Self.
Cool. A photo from The DuBois Center Fall Festival in the paper, just before this year’s festival is about to happen.
In terms of the people who are pictured, Self said, “the one in the middle is Lester Porter. I think the one on his left is one of his boys, maybe Gary Porter, I’m not sure. The other one, I don’t know who it is.”
“They are doing a hand-split log demonstration. That’s a wedge he’s driving,” she continued. “We used to have rail fencing there on the property. They were splitting this log into several pieces for the rail fence. The first few, we had these old time demonstrations.”
Priscilla says she worked at DuBois Center for 37 years.
“That was at DuBois Center, near the north side of the lodge over there,” said Dave Porter, confirming what Self stated. “It had to be at one of the first Fall Festivals there. That would have been late 70s or early 80s, most likely.”
Steve Kellerman is on the left, Porter said, and Lester Porter, Dave’s late father, is in the middle. Priscilla was correct that it was one of Lester’s sons on the right, but it wasn’t Gary, but Dave himself swinging the hammer.
“The one on the left, that’s Steven Kellerman,” said our third caller, Kitty Wisely. “The guy on the right that’s actually swinging the hammer, is Dave Porter.”
With three people reaching out to us, each giving us part of the whole with this Classic Photo, I hope readers can see and appreciate just how much their responses help us to put together the stories behind these pictures from year’s past.
Thank you to Mrs. Self, Mr. Porter and Mrs. Wisely, and thank you to everyone who gets in touch with The Nashville News to tell us about one of these photos.
