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Sad Observation Today

N

NY 986

Well-known Member
I was out doing errands today and saw the block building
portion of the IH dealer that was near Geneva being taken down.
It was probably of no use to the current owners but it set off a
wave of memories that point to how old I am now. I can
remember back in the early 1980's riding by going to and from
Alfred State with usually a couple of pretty girls riding along. I
don't think they got the thrill of driving past and looking at new
5088 tractors and 1460 combines that I did. I arranged my
route so I also passed Miller's in North Cohocton and sometimes
Hansen's in Hornell. The 1980's in a lot of ways were not fun for
me but that little nearly every weekend ride brightened my spirits. I
loved stopping at Bob and Ruth's in Naples as a bonus in warm weather.
 
I think it was D&W Equipment ?and was bought out by Milt VanHomon =part of Empire Tractor Today /Rt 318 ! They can be seen from the NY RT 90
 
Sorry, I should have mentioned that it was F & W. I think they ran from about 1970 to 1983 when they were bought out by Finger Lakes Tractor of who you are thinking of. Before 1970 it was CM Nielsen on 5 & 20 out by the plaza of which I don't have a personal memory of.
 
F&W Equipment, Fordon and Warrick. Think Warrick

was bought out by John early. John's phone number

was/is easy to remember,ended in 1086.
 
When I was a kid there was a Ford tractor agency in town, The shop foreman was my mentor. I really liked him and he gave to me one of my first cigarettes. He really knew tractors and has been the head mechanic at a pretty good IHC dealer. I met up with him several years later and found he was a close friend to the fellow who had become my step dad. My step dad told me he was a heavy drinker and had been fired from the International dealer because of his heavy drinking. By this time he had lost his health and looked whipped. All of his teeth were missing but he still knew tractors. A few years ago they tore down the Ford tractor shop and found about a pickup truck load of empty whiskey bottles. My first tractor was a "B" Farmall he had just overhauled in the Ford shop. My first Tractor mechanic job was at another Ford dealer and I wanted to become like my friend from boyhood less the drinking. This I never accomplished, Ford dealer fired me and I went to Allis Chalmers
 
Well I can't relate with you about the ih dealer in Geneva but I can about checking out dealers on the way back and forth from home to alfred state. Oliver's in canaseraga was the one I drove through every time. When I was at alfred in the early 2000's the ih dealer in hornell was either closed at that time or something because I never remember seeing anything there but now its part of Monroe tractor. I still like the old dealers without the multi store franchises, seems like when you deal with the owners or long time guys they remember you better and want your business even if your not buying a new tractor every year. If you were going to alfred in the early 80's I wouldn't say you were getting old, just more experienced!
 
986,
I graduated from A Tech, in 68. Myself and several other Ag Engineering students opted for the three year program, because we were married and needed to support a family. Our first son was born in the hospital in Hornell, and we lived off campus down the road in Almond, in a trailer park kidycross from the school.
Also had many good times at the Road House just down from us, and up at the Lodge. Also had friends in Syo, and Wellsville. There wasn't much happening in Alfred on a Friday night, as you well know.
My passingers were all guys in the AE curiculem, and we would hook up in Oneonta for the trip west to ATech.
Loren, the Acg.
 
I considered switching to AE but was talked out of it. Yeah, there was not a lot happening on a weekend which is why I went home a lot. Probably if I had a different set of friends I might have stuck around more weekends. They may have not had the Pioneer Lounge (bar) on campus back in your day but a night there got kind of expensive so I may have done one Saturday a month. My dorm mates usually wanted to go down Wednesday or Thursday nights so there was not much left for Friday and Saturday spending-wise. Wellsville had a couple of night spots back then but they did not suit a country boy like me. Hornell was mainly for going to Mc Donald's or Friendly's.
I was kind of dead center of where a bunch of students lived that went to Alfred so they caught rides with me. I wished I had a real shot at some of the girls that rode along but that was not the case. Being a farm boy was in some ways a drawback in that respect just like high school unfortunately. At least the guys on the same floor where I was were jealous that at least I got those girls to ride with me.
 
I know what you are talking about in regards to Hansen's. When I went there the lot on the north side of Rte 21 was loaded with equipment, a fair amount of it was new including a 4690 Case tractor. Just a few years later the place was a ghost town.
 
A fellow named James F Moore moved from Almond, NY westward and settled in Wisconsin where he was appointed US Postmaster of this little stagecoach stop town that had no name. Before the Post Office could open, the town needed a name. So James Moore selected "Almond". That was in 1850. As of 2010, Almond, Wis had 448 residents.
 
Thanks for the Correction on the owners of the past,F&W does sound right ,I have seen some of there Dealer Stickers on Equipment over the Years,But Sad to See Things Change like that.
 
Your post made me think of the song, "Time" by Bobby Bare, where he mentions, "they're tearing down buildings that I watched them build."
 
Yes I know this one too. In Flemington,nj when I was 8 years old in 1958 ,the feed mill 'G.L.F" was putting up the grain silos for the full service mill. All of the silos "big tubes" came in on rail cars on the Lehigh Valley branch line. I had the chicken pox so my dad took me into town in the 1946 Chevy pick up so we could watch them work for about one hour or so. My dad is gone, the rail branch line was pulled in 1996, and the feed mill was torn down in 2001 and the warehouse store part went out of busines in 2010. This gettin old stuff SUCKS!!! Jeffcat
 
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