Classic Green

Mark-Ia

Well-known Member
There is a movement to establish a national club for John Deere enthusiasts. www.classicgreen.org. If the Red, Orange and the other green can do it. So can we. Long past due. Not affiliated with Two-Cylinder or Deere Company in any way.
 
It would be interesting. To my knowledge no such club is out there for New Generation and beyond but maybe somebody here knows different. I think that for many decades now gone by that the 2 cylinder clubs covered it for JD enthusiasts. The last club I belonged to fell apart due to members getting too old. Too many area clubs regardless of theme are too cliquish and are not taking new members nor have been for a long time now. It's a good idea as long as it does not get overrun with snooty people.
 
Sounds like a great idea if you can keep the bad attitudes out of it or the your tractor is not good enough. I like Allis collecters the best as they are very friendly and have a very laid back attitude. Tom
 
Anything John Deere related will be able to show regardless of it's appearance. Classic Green is also on Facebook.
 
I've also encountered the "Have more money than manners" attitude. Should be about the people and love for the brand. Even at the Gathering of the Green I have over heard negative comments about the items proud owners bring to display. Personally I like the history of any item over the appearance. I have a Dain pumpjack that my Dad used as a boy. Dad painted it up and added upright wood arms to look as he remembers it. If a bad remark was made about its appearance...well, it would not be well received. If a club can focus on history of the item, be it family or brand...COUNT ME IN!!
 
I have been around JD equipment since I could walk. 80 percent or more of my current equipment is JD. That being said the JD owners include some of the most arrogant Butt holes in the world!!!!! That is what killed the John Deere Expo. It will kill any group put together featuring JD only too.

We quit showing anything 15 years ago when some of the correction police jumped on my Wife's Father's tractor. It is exactly like it was when it was delivered. She has pictures showing that. Two of the BUTTS argued up an down that tractor was put together out of parts as this and that was never offered "from the factory" like that. They had her so mad she was in tears. I bluntly told both of them they had better RUN away from me right then!!!!! Even though we had only been there a few hours we loaded everything up and went home. HER tractor has never left the farm since.

We get them out maybe once or twice each year just for family and that is it.

I have sold just about all the JD antique tractors that are not family owned. As I have aged the attraction to stupid brake pedal, hand clutch, noisy/smelly tractors has greatly decreased. Thinking about it I bet that I have not driven a two cylinder in 2-3 years. Don't miss them. I well remember running my JD "G" all day long plowing/disking. Get back to the house and about have to about craw into the house from fatigue from operating that thing dawn to dusk.

Good luck getting a group together but I will pass.
 
There is one or two new generation pages on face book that are pretty dang neat . I was on a 2 cylinder page for awhile but those guys were the worst bunch I?ve ever seen for telling people how stupid this was and that was I don?t think I?ll join that page again
 
You are a lot bigger man than I am for handling it that way is all I can say . I just absolutely hate the correct police 👮‍♀️ I find myself being a deputy for the correct police every now and then and I have to knock myself back a few notches why can?t people appreciate the time somebody put in just to bring the tractor out it could be like this area where there are no shows anywhere to go to
 
I used to have five JDs. I sold all of them except my 27 D because that was my first tractor. Bought it 54 years ago. The reason I sold them was for the reasons already mentioned. What surprises me is the fact that the JD guys will eat their own kind not just owners of other brands. Now I own four other brands and get to talk to much nicer people.
 
That kind of attitude occurs in all the other colors but since you never travelled in those circles you never saw it. The worst guys I saw while working for Central Tractor years ago were gray and red Ford owners. I can still hear the one in my mind sneering about his Workmaster tractor even though it is 25 years ago since that store ran. Two of the worst guys I knew in terms of tractor clubs were IH guys. All the manufacturers built tractors they should be proud of and had designs that they should be ashamed of.
 
I kind of agree with NY 986.
What's the purpose of a club anyway? Isn't it for like-minded
people to show off their interests?
Usually the worse people end up in charge.
I don't belong to any clubs but enjoy going to a show when I
have time (rarely).
I find myself critiquing (OK! CRITICIZING!) some of the exhibits.
I would rather see a rusty tractor than one that was painted w/o
being prepared. I prefer a properly restored tractor over an
over-finished one with smooth cast iron and chromed up. They might
look nice and have had a lot of time and money spent on them but
that's just me. I don't like seeing a "professional" restoration
that doesn't even have the right decals or right colored paint.
On the other hand I do appreciate seeing something like an
M John Deere with an Allison aircraft engine (a ridiculous example)
and the engineering that went into it.
I would rather just go to a general tractor show with various brands
where I might see something new than go to a club's exhibit.
 
A few words on clubs since there is so much negativity being expressed. If you think that the club is run by the worst people, that means one of two things, either you are not in sync with the purpose of the club or the club suffers from a membership that always wants someone else to take the lead. That's how the worst people get in charge, the best people don't want to make the effort so the only people who are willing to take charge are the worst people. You get out of a club what you put into it.


The club needs to have some ground rules on decorum. One that should be mandatory is that everyone has preferences in their tractors, you are entitled to yours and you need to respect those of others because these are all matters of opinion and yours is no better than anyone else's. Friendly rivalry amongst ourselves and with other brands is a positive, smug self-righteousness is not. Membership in clubs is voluntary so mutual respect is required, if you have a member that is driving others away, that person needs to be corrected and if that fails, expelled. Ground rules are there to keep people in line because we are all human and don't always behave the way we wished we did.
 
Classic Green is comprised of a group of Deere collectors and fans who wanted to create a new organization and their mission statement is shown on the “About” section of the Classic Green Facebook page, copied here: “The purpose of the organization is to unite all John Deere collectors and enthusiast globally by establishing an organization for everyone who enjoys John Deere products, collectibles, and memorabilia through exhibiting, collecting, preserving, and restoring all things related to John Deere.” They created a Facebook page and had a small booth at the Gathering of the Green. At this moment, there 930 members in the Facebook group.

In April, a poll was taken asking what the members what they wanted the club to do. And by an overwhelming margin, the members voted to get another Expo going. But from the very beginning, everyone made it clear that it was not going to be an “Expo” and the word “Expo” would not be used, and that anything relating to John Deere – tractors, implements, memorabilia, snow blowers, weed eaters, in any condition, would be welcome to be displayed. So when a Classic Green show occurs, you can expect to see everything from the most perfect, accurate, high-quality restorations down to a broken-down Deere weed eater being displayed. But it will be 100% Deere, or Deere related (Velie, Van Brunt, Lanz, etc.)

I attended two meetings held in Waterloo this weekend during the 100 year Celebration where we learned that the founding members of Classic Green have started the legal stuff (applying for 501(c)(3) tax status, establishing the club mission, registering the club trademark, developing a set of bylaws, etc. There were roughly 75 attendees in those meetings. Several members have been searching for possible show locations. There were some volunteers who formed steering committee groups that are developing organizational plans to help all this come about. Eventually, the group will elect a formal board of directors and officers which will be the real start of the organization.

There is great enthusiasm with these people and it’s encouraging to see this level of excitement about creating a national (and possibly world-wide) organization of Deere collectors and fans. It very clear that this will not be a “snooty” organization. Unfortunately, at any show there will always be some collector or spectator who will loudly criticize another’s exhibit, and it’s probable that this might occur at a Classic Green event, as well. But I’ve learned that seeing such behavior simply proves there are lots of crude and boorish people who were never taught any manners or have any concept of being polite. It takes a bigger person to ignore that behavior...
 

I was going to restore my great grandfather’s 430 he bought new in 58 I think. Instead I have just got it running good and put back to work. When my father and I started planning the restoration, and looked at all the battle scars it has I couldnt bring myself to change it. The dents in the hood from the April 74 tornados. The dent in the air cleaner from when grandpa started it from the ground in gear and it drove through the side of the barn. Sixty years of wear from work on the farm. When I started driving it I was little enough I had to haul back on the wheel to get the clutch all the way down. It would never win any shows thats for sure, but i realized that Id miss seeing that contrary grumpy looking old thing in the barn if we made it look new again.

I love the restorations and seeing what these machines looked like from the factory. But I also appreciate that wear and tear on every old machine represent a lot of stories.
 
I can't think of a tractor brand more under represented from a collector standpoint than John Deere.
 

I think Dan pretty well explained it all, but I would like to reiterate that most of the concerns about the elitist attitude were amongst the first things addressed. If you look at the organization's logo it says, "It's All About the People."
 
I like the idea of the show. It sounds like it's more laid back than the current Deere only shows. I love the idea of being able to show any machine, whether it is a professionally restored tractor or something that was pulled out of the back corner of the barn last week and gotten running. It would be great if it could be a show that was at a different location every year, like some of the other colors do. Hopefully you can keep the egos out of it, as that has ruined a lot of shows. I, like many others, refuse to do Facebook, so it would be great if there was some other form of contact in addition to Facebook.
 
There seems to be a huge group of Deere enthusiasts on Facebook. For example, in just one group call the "John Deere Two-Cylinder Club of Facebook", there are over 54,000 members. And we were told at the Classic Green meeting that the average age of those members was between 25 and 35 years old. So perhaps there is another generation interested in learning about old John Deeres.

At the present time, it appears Facebook will be the primary means of spreading the word about Classic Green, but they recognize that not all people will use Facebook. They have started a website https://www.classicgreen.org/ , and it has some basic information for those interested.
 
Facebook is amazing the only bad thing about it is there is a lot of money to be spent on the different auction sites
and yard sale sites I also get a fair amount of business from Facebook it?s made me about 2000$ this year alone in
custom farming jobs which isn?t a lot but it?s not bad for just pushing some keys on my phone .
 

For those who have Facebook phobia we will have plenty of updates in Green Magazine, including an article in the near future on how and why the organization was founded and its goals.
 

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