Photos From The 2023 Vankleek Hill ‘Truck Pull & Show N’Shine’

Posted on by Gabriel.

It would probably take experts in geography, mechanical engineering, paleoclimatology, and Pleistocene geochronology a semester — with their multitude of diagrams and power-point presentations, to even attempt to fully explain the context of this photo.

Thankfully I’ve got a 28-year old College diploma in Journalism, so I think I’m qualified enough to give it a shot.

…these are photos I took for The Review [link], our local newspaper, of the 2023 version of the ‘Vankleek Hill Truck Pull & Show N’Shine’. It’s been going on for a few years now… they had one last year that I missed, and I’m not sure if they had one during the two years of the Pandemic, but I did take photos of their 2019 Show. One of my photos from that year ended up on the Front Page of The Review, a few others made up most of a half-page photo essay [Photos From 2019: link].

The editorial for that particular edition of The Review, was something about “A cleaner future”. So, of course, there were several letters to the Editor loudly denouncing the hypocrisy… how dare the Publisher / Owner publish a photo of a diesel belching truck, and write about clean energy. Or some such nonsense. Whatever, I spent the money I was paid on gas.

…all that to say, I think the feedback from The Review publishing these photos will be 100x worse.

I didn’t notice until I started editing my photos, for example, but nowhere in any of them is there any hint of a sky. Just black diesel smoke against a slightly reddish, mostly grey, thick haze.

It was smoke. Eye watering, lung pinching, cough inducing thick smoke from the 100+ wildfire fires burning in Quebec [link]. That’s right, it’s Climate Change baby.

…the MC mentioned that at last weeks event (I didn’t catch the name of the town) there was a Ford F150 Lightning competing — it’s their all-electric truck. He said the truck did all right, but it wasn’t the same without the roar of the turbo charged diesel engines.

Something tells me the future of Truck Pulling will be quieter and maybe back to blue skies.

Regardless… I did enjoy the day out. Click on a photo to get the carousel going. Or not. No pressure.

EDIT: …The Review published four of my shots, it took up half a page about halfway into the paper. I’m spending the money on gas.

2 thoughts on “Photos From The 2023 Vankleek Hill ‘Truck Pull & Show N’Shine’”

    • We have a Purge every other year.

      Honestly, there will be a lot of letters to the Editor, and a few arguments on The Review’s Facebook page, but nothing major. The primary cliques (farmers, hockey people, artists) have the opportunity to mingle at most of our Festivals — the May Arts Show; the Trash & Treasure; the Horse & Buggy Show; the Fair, and; the Food Festival. The smaller, more niche events, like the Truck Pull, have their own audience.

      … actually, the only time I’ve ever read or heard of people around here trying to cancel an Activity / Event, was the FarmFest Music Weekend. It was a three-day metal music festival at the Fair Grounds. It lasted three years — I think the Pandemic finally shut them down. But they kept breaking the 11pm noise curfew, and if there’s one thing farmers, hockey people, and artists can agree on is the need for a good night’s sleep [here’s the organizer’s letter to the Editor after being cancelled: link].

      Thanks for the comment, Brad.

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