The threshing bee is unique to early America. The activity was always a rural community event that demonstrated many core values that defined the early American spirit. Pre-dating American county and state fairs, and still enjoyed across rural America, threshing bees stand on their own. They serve to remind, educate, and delight participants and spectators alike.
The fourth definition of "bee" in the Oxford English Dictionary states: "in allusion to the social character of the insect... a meeting of neighbors to unite their labors for the benefit of one of their number... usually preceded by a word defining the purpose of the meeting, as apple-bee, husking-bee, quilting-bee, raising-bee... hence, with extended sense, a
gathering or meeting for some object."
Bees traditionally involve folk crafts and chores; thus they are more than merely social. To infer from the Latin root, bene (good), bees involve quilting, threshing, canning, spinning, logging or barn-raising for the common good. There is a moral dimension to bee-ing; it is a grand utility at work and the building blocks of the Golden Rule.
