This Face to Face was done in 2009 and when I came across it again I thought it was worth sharing.

Face to Face with Alex Davidson. Benny McKenna first introduced me to Alex Davidson some weeks ago in a heavy wet stubble field in County Monaghan, where a number of men were taking part in a Ploughing Championship organised by Monaghan Veteran and Vintage Club. As soon as I met Alex I was struck by his enthusiasm, vitality and warmth. I just had to learn more about this ordinary, yet amazing man, from the Castlecaulfield area of County Tyrone. Last week I sat at his fireside listening as he told his story. Young Alex. Alex was born and reared outside Castlecaulfield on the Old Caulfield Road and was the youngest of a large family. His father died when he was just 14 years of age and this meant that he had to grow up very quickly and make his own way in life. His father, James, had been a farmer, doing the usual things for a relatively small farmer of the day – growing food for man and animal and making that little bit extra by selling eggs to the local egg store. To make ends meet, just like most families at the time, work had to be done seven days of the week at times but they were able to supply their own food from the field with home made bread, butter and jam supplemented with potatoes.# The young Alex attended the local Primary School in Castlecaulfield and remembers two of the teachers – Mr. McNamee and Ms. Goodwin, both now deceased. Mr.McNamee was from the locality and knew all the families attending the school. Ms. Goodwin passed by Alex’s house on the way to and from school each day. If she was in good humour, and if Alex had behaved himself in the classroom, she sometimes gave him a lift to or from the school. Otherwise he walked the four miles round trip each day and thought nothing of it. Contracting. When he left school Alex worked on the farm and on other farms, helping out with the work. He had other little jobs with businesses in the area but then he and his brother set up a farm contracting business and went about from farm to farm cutting hay, baling, harvesting, cutting hedges and any other work they were called on to do. They had tractors and they were all David Browns, as they liked that make and they suited what they wanted them for. They later had a John Deere and liked it too. It was one of the original John Deeres and not one of the massive comfortable ones going now. However the contracting came to an end with the sad passing of his brother. He suffered from cancer and died at the young age of 25 years. Alex then had jobs including delivering coal for Dungannon Coal and delivering pullets for Wilson Edgar. He spent 14 years at the latter. He used have to go to farms to collect the pullets and then he had to deliver litters to farmers, who had houses for laying hens. There was a big difference in the production of eggs in these houses compared with the dozen or so hens running about the house and the farmer collecting the eggs from the nests in the hayshed, barn or somewhere else around the place. The free range were good health tasty eggs. Alex then got a job with Dungannon District Council and he was again able to do all sorts of jobs in that employment, from cleaning to grass-cutting and general maintenance. Marriage. In his free time Alex socialised and enjoyed peoples’ company. For dancing he usually went to the Seagoe in Portadown but there were always other social occasions like barn dances. It was at one of these in a henhouse at Tamnamore that he met Doreen Finlay from Rehaghey, outside Aughnacloy, and they married in September 1982. On the morning of the wedding she kept him waiting for half an hour and jokingly he claims that he was thinking about all the food that would have to be eaten whether she turned up or not. But she did turn up and they have made an excellent team since then. Dungannon Vintage Club. Machinery was in his blood from an early age and he with a number of his friends used go to visit Vintage Rallies and Machinery Shows. They liked going to the Vintage rallies and browsing at all the old types of cars, lorries and tractors and seeing how things were done in the previous century. Then one night Alex with a couple of his friends were sitting having a drink in Packie Quinn’s, when he suggested that they set up their own Vintage Club. There was agreement to do so and there was some laughter when they were making a decision on the possible name for the club as some wit suggested that they call it ‘The Alcoholics Vintage Club’, not that any of them were alcoholics but since it was founded in a pub. Anyhow that was seven years ago and Dungannon Vintage Club was formed and has been very active since then. Some of those who were involved at the beginning were: Kenny McGowan, John McCann, Eugene McCann, Paul Gormley, who died about two years ago, David Beatty, Denis Quinn and Alex and Doreen. They were given great assistance and support by members of other existing Vintage Clubs like Philip Bell from Caledon and Monaghan’s Anthony Leonard, Jimmy McKernan and Benny McKenna. Annual Rally. They have had six annual Rally Days and the first Sunday in September is now the fixed date for the Dungannon Club big day. The numbers each year have grown and last year saw a very big crowd attend. The event is held on Alex’s property and he puts everything at the disposal of the club. However there is a great deal of work involved in the organising of such a day. In order to make it as appealing as possible to as wide an audience as possible a great mixture of attractions must be provided on the day. Alex and his team seem to have got the right mix, judging by the crowds and the good reports of the day but he knows that you must always try to get something new every year. One of the big attractions has been the entertainment provided on the day. The Edendork Pipe Band is a great favourite and the Band is very supportive of the Rally. They march up the road to the Rally field and play recitals for the spectators throughout the afternoon. The Coalisland Silver Band is also a participant and last year they thrilled the crowd when both bands played a number of tunes together. Other individual performers like Trevor Dixon, Ita Logan and others go down well with the audience too. For the younger generation there is a funfair and they can have great enjoyment on the swings and slides. There will also be a full range of vintage cars, tractors, lorries, motorbikes, auto-jumble and farm machinery on display. Exhibitors and spectators come from all over the province and beyond. The proceedings are recorded and M & M Videos produce an excellent DVD, which is then sold and helps to raise some of the funding needed to run such a Rally. It is important to record these events for future generations and they record the various demonstrations of work using vintage tools. The DVD also contains interviews with people and these are very informative and worth keeping for posterity. Indeed each year the expenses grow and the time needed to organise increases too but it is all worth while. Alex is adamant that it is important to remember the past from which we all came. It is good to see how our ancestors were able to survive and the type of work and labour they had to do in order to feed and clothe themselves. Indeed already much has been lost and many of the present generation are unaware how plants are grown and how to produce food from the earth. Projects. Each year a different farm project is completed for the Rally. Last year they had a field of about one acre of Corn ready for harvesting. This was cut using the scythe and muscle. It was then tied, stood in stooks and ready for threshing. Many men tried their hand with the scythe and displayed their skills. The previous year that same field was planted with spuds. They were ready for digging and the club advertised for potato gatherers. Some turned up including a number of foreign nationals. They were fed with good home-made bread, butter and jam and had every potato gathered within four hours. On Rally day the club sold plastic bags for £2 and if you bought one of these you could fill it will potatoes on your way home. This was very profitable for the club. Charities. Alex and the committee want to continue to run the shows and keep heritage alive. They want to entertain people and hopefully get plenty of support from the people.This is important as each year the Club donates the profits to a local charity. For the first years Parkinsons Association benefited and, for 2009, the proceeds will go to Age Concern. So it stands to sense that the more people attend and support the Rally, the more money will be available to present to the charity but the Club is also making sure that those who attend will have an enjoyable and memorable day out. They also get great support from neighbouring Clubs like Tullylagan and Ballyronan and with the enthusiasm displayed by Alex and Doreen the Club will survive. Tragedy. However Alex is a remarkable person in more ways than one and just when life seemed to be going great tragedy struck. On March 3rd 2007 he was in a field beside the house hitching a trailer onto a Ferguson T20 when the drive caught his trousers and as he tried to save himself in that split second it caught his arm and broke it completely off just three inches below the elbow. Another man was rotavating in the same field and noticed that something was wrong. He ran to Alex, discovered the terrible scene and ran to the house to call an ambulance. Alex was taken to Craigavon and then transferred on to Dundonald Hospital. He has great praise for the medical staff, who treated him all the way through his ordeal and marvels at their skills, care and commitment, even though there was nothing they could do to re-attach the limb. He knows it was his own carelessness that was responsible. Few knew the dangers better than himself but loss of concentration and care for that one second left him as he is. Indeed he is lucky that he survived at all. It is a day he will never forget. However, what Alex did next reminded me of a quote attributed to Norman Vincent Peale when he said – ‘Life’s blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm’. His accident happened on Saturday, March 3rd and on Friday March 9th, just six days later, Alex was present to donate a cheque to Parkinsons Association in the Gables. This shows a great strength of character and a wonderful enthusiasm. That early trip from hospital, again his own doing, did cause a set back as an infection set in and he had to get maggot treatment to clear it up. His description of this procedure raises the goose-pimples but it worked and it seems as if this same method can be used successfully to treat MRSA infected wounds. Life Changing. Even with all of this Alex remained in high spirits and good form. But it was a major life-changing happening. This was the loss of a right arm from a right-handed man. He had to re- learn how to do all the everyday things and regain his independence. He can do most personal things again for himself but until last week he could not wash his own hand. However he and Doreen went into the workshop and designed and made an attachment using a fine nylon brush, which he can now use to wash his own hand. For other things he says – ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and he can manage and he has obvious magnificent support from Doreen. Much of the time he still feels the hands existence and might go to do something with it to find that it is not there. He can feel it forming a fist or trying to grip things as all the muscles in the upper arm and shoulder are still working perfectly but it is not there to do what he expects. It is all in the imagination and he has to live with it. At times he would have preferred to have lost a leg instead as then he could do so much more. With his injury he lost his job with the Council and is not allowed to drive. This has meant massive changes to his life style. He must live on the Benefit Scheme and that causes difficulty as it does not allow for buying anything more than the bare necessities. They must do without anything over and above those necessities. He cannot travel to the places and events that he would like to attend and is now unable to exhibit his own machinery at Rallies. Great Staff. In all of this he still praises the staff in the Dundonald Hospital, especially Ward 10 and Ward 18, for what they did for him. On the occasion of their 25th Wedding anniversary in September 2007 they decided to organise an Anniversary party in the Greenvale Hotel, Cookstown. They invited all their friends and asked that donations towards the hospital be given instead of presents for them. One week later they travelled by taxi to the hospital and presented a cheque to the value of £1,300. This was received with great gratitude and was a wonderful gesture by Alex and Doreen. It is also a measure of the number and quality of their friends who attended and contributed to the fund. Future. Now as the 2009 Rally will be in aid of Age Concern, they have decided to help boost the donation for that organisation by running a Dance in the Gables on March 6th 2009. Edendork Pipe Band will be present to entertain and Wee Tom will provide the music for the dance. Alex suggests that people should go for the 3 Ds – Dine (have a meal); Drink (wash it down with a wee drink) and then Dance the night away. Sounds like a great night out and for a very worthy cause and they are hoping for a big attendance. Mahatma Gandhi once said: ‘Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will’. Could there be a better example? Peadar McMahon