Niles Reamer poses in front of a display case at the Hog Capital building. Reamer joined the Hog Days committee, which is responsible for planning and implementing the festival, in 1979. [Photo by Susan DeVilder]

In 1979, Niles Reamer lived just across the street from George Murchison’s father.

“We were friends,” Reamer said, and when he often spoke with his neighbor, one subject in particular would come up-Hog Days.

One day, Reamer said, he inquired about how he could join the committee. He had been thinking about a way he could help.

“I did help one year before that through the lodge,” said Reamer, who is also a member of Odd Fellows, and he remembered enjoying the work.

Reamer attended a meeting and very quickly became an active member responsible for helping to plan and pull off the yearly festival. That was 45 years ago, and Reamer hasn’t missed a year.

Born and raised in Kewanee, Reamer graduated from Kewanee High School in 1962. He and his wife, Sheila, married 53 years ago and the couple went on to have four daughters. They now have 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Niles is retired after spending decades as a factory worker, and he and Sheila have been active in their church.

Although he’s worn many hats with the Hog Days committee, Reamer’s main work has always focused on one area in particular. Reamer is a fixture in the BBQ Tent, beginning his volunteer work early on with the committee assisting George Murchison in setting up the barbeque grills and making sandwiches.

He also took his turn at the grill, cooking butterfly chops and patties, but after decades of volunteer work, he now leaves the cooking to the younger generation.

“I’m getting too old for that,” he said.

Other jobs he’s done with the committee was pulling the Hog Days float in area parades during the period when Hog Days had such a float. They gave up that endeavor years ago, he said. Other tasks he’s taken on in past years have been cleaning the charcoal out of the grills, painting tables and making up the bags of the special pork chop seasoning that’s sold in the souvenir shop.

Reamer said the past years have gone pretty smoothly and while he doesn’t have a memory of a year when something went majorly wrong, he does remember a year when it rained so much that water flooded into the pork chop tent, which at that time was located in the Spets Bros. parking lot. The volunteers used shovels and brooms to sweep and bail out the water that had accumulated. The pork chop tent is now on grass, he said, and it’s a much better set up.

Having worked together for so long, the committee, he said, works like a well-oiled machine. Everyone knows what needs to be done and does their job, but he wishes the committee could attract some younger volunteers.

“Anne (Murchison) and I are the oldest members,” he said. “Most of the older volunteers I used to work with are all gone now.”

But Reamer admits there wouldn’t and couldn’t be a Hog Days without the volunteers, who work diligently all year to ensure that Hog Days is a success.

“We need people to be on the committee,” he said, adding that only one person on the committee is under 60 years old.

At the BBQ Tent, Reamer said they are always lucky and grateful to get dozens of hard-working volunteers from area organizations and the schools to help work the grill, make sandwiches and assist with the pork chop drive-thru.

Still after 45 years of volunteer work, Reamer, in jest, said he has no plans to step away from the committee of which he’s become an integral part.

“The only way to get rid of this committee is to die,” he said.