I never gave any thought to having to be in school on St. Patrick's day 75 years ago. In fact, until reminded, I didn?t even remember that my two oldest brothers got to stay home. Still I remember like yesterday seeing that brand new, shiny, John Deere Model H tractor on a trailer behind a pick-up going down the dusty road in front of the one-room country school house during recess. I knew where it was headed - our place. It was about the first rubber-tired tractor in the neighborhood. I would have been a second-grader and 6 years old. Little did I know that some 24 years later I?d be working as an engineer for John Deere in Moline, IL. At this point in life I am amazed to think what a pleasant surprise all that must have been to my parents. At age 17, a year out of high-school, they hauled me to Lincoln in the fall, dumped me out, I suppose with a suitcase, and said, "go to school.? OK, it wasn?t quite that way, but in essence it was!