Growing up on a semi farm, we only had the one tractor. The Farmall C model, with the narrow front wheels. All it had to do most of the time was disc the field, plow up a garden with the middle busters, and mow the fields with an old horse drawn sickle bar mower that one of us 4 boys had to ride all the time. I graduated high school and went off to college, got married etc etc. Of course I went home every chance I got, but never got involved with the 'farming' any more. One time while I was up there Daddy ask me to help him get the C model started so he could mow. I walked out with him and the ole tractor that I had spent so much time on was all dull red, with some rust, some sort of new almost matching paint that was used to cover over some rust. As we are getting the chains out to pull start it, I noticed that there was a weld on the transmission case all the way down and around! I ask what happen and Daddy said he had broken it. BROKE the transmission case? He said he was pulling the two row plow over at the neighbors and got the tractor and plow stuck. Got the other neighbor to come pull him out and it just broke in two. Local welder had pulled it back together, welded it up and they refilled it with oil and went on using it. Ok, what ever. I bought the tractor for a dollar when I moved back up here. With simple points, plugs, timing set, and that type of stuff, got it to where it would fire right up. All I did with it was drag a field mower around my little 3 acre field. The break happen about 1964 or so, and I was using it to mow with in 1990s. Finally the field I was mowing sold so I parked the IH under a tree and there it sat. My neighbor saw it and finally one day after maybe 6 years, came down and offered to buy it for 'yard art'. Thought about it, called Daddy and ask him, he said, 'What ever. It's yours now.' So after I explained that the engine would need a rebuild and on and on.. we reached a price and I pulled it down to his house and parked it. All he wants is show off. So, every time I pull into my street, there she sits, Smiling at me. Not sure I like seeing her sitting up there all alone. Now that things are better around here, maybe she should come home to run again. And keep my two John Deere yard mowers and my 1940 Ford 9N Company. Thinks she deserves it after all the good days we had spent together. Someone on here had mentioned that they talked to their tractors. I sure did to that one. As we would go around and around mowing or plowing or what ever, I would carry on a conversation with that ole C model. Just telling her about my week, maybe the new girl in school, or warning her to watch that hole coming up! Sometimes I think she really did listen. It then dawned on me I have not introduced myself to my new/old Ford. Although I have used her a bit up at my bothers, I never got real personal with her. Just as soon as this rain quits, going to go out and check her over, and have a chat with her. She deservers is. Just wish she could talk back and tell me what all she has seen, where she has been, and what all she has done. Like, how did you get that dent in your lower grill? Ben Woods, tx, entered 2004-04-06
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