Long time ago, I had a client who grew up on a farm in Indiana in the 1930's. I think his dad was trained to operate a Case steam engine and would take it around to each farm to thresh grain, and he would ride along to help fuel and water the engine.

He said one thing that fascinated him was, "on one farm, there was this big German fella who always carried a thermos of hot black coffee. Nothing else. Just hot coffee. And he'd spend all day loading wheat into the thresher, in the hot sun, only stopping to take a swig of his coffee. I always figured the engine would run out of steam before he did."

I heard lots of stories from people that I've long since forgotten but for some reason that one stuck with me.