A journey back in time

[Mark - IN.]

Imagine that you're a little kid growing up on a farm in rural Indiana, and you sneak into your piggy bank and off to the one pump Sinclair gas station down the road for some penny candy. Now, your father has an Allis B and a Farmall H, and all of your cousins have Deers, Cases and what not, so you know what farms and tractors are. You go into the gas station and buy up a small paper sack full of candy, and as you're paying for it you hear a real ruckus going on outside. When you walk out the door, you see one of these tooling right at you the the gravel parking lot, and you aint never seen anything like it before in your life and you stand as tall as somewhere between the front axle and top of the wheel. If you were me, you dropped your bag of candy right there, ran across the road, through the barbed wire fence, through the corn and all the way home, hoping to make it before it blew up and leveled everything within a million miles.

You sure do gotta love them things now. Wish I had one.
Advanced Rumely

 

[Larry59]

I remember my dad had and old tractor that he built a box in the rear. One you could stand in with rails around it. .. I would drive it down the wood line and my dad would stand in back with his old shot gun. Hunting rabbits as we road along. If one jumped up , I would stop the tractor and he would go get it. Seemed he never missed as I recall.
Time passes but these thoughts will never leave me. Happy New Year!

 

[Paul N Texas]

Ummm, to get the full effect, I need to know what part of Indiana... Why??? I was born in Shelbyville, and transposed to a warmer climate

 

[Mark - IN.]

Elkhart, Co, cousins are down in Marshall, Co. I'm in Bristol these days.

 

[georgeky]

Larry, I have also killed many a rabbit the same way. Could get nearly every one out of a cornfield at picking time with a 22.

 

[Old Timer in Ohio]

Hey there;
Back in,I think 1937-38 I remember
my dad borrowing,a horse powered"slip scoop'
he used it to dig out the basement for our"big"
new house.It was a warm spring day,dad was
talking that to old horse it did just what he
asked.And I still can see dad flying up in the
air cussing all the way,seems he caught a rock
bigger than he thought,it sounds funny now.We couldn't afford a tractor. Bob
God Bless

 

[Anonymous-0]

Rabbits and corn picking just seem to go together. I would always try to get to haul the corn to the crib when the field was nearly done so I could hunt while waiting for another load. Sure was fun waching our old dog run rabbits when we got down to the last 15 or 20 rows. Rest of the time I'd rather drive the tractor on the picker and not have to shovel corn off into the cribs.
Paul

 

[DW in indy]

Hi Paul. I'm here in the Pleasantview area by Fairland and Boggstown. Go into town all the time to the Cowpalace. Their in the process of turning that horse track into a big gambling casino now.I think it's a big mistake for the county.All my family had the same thought you did, they up and left town for Florida Texas and Arizona and here I'm sitting in the cold. What was I thinking? Hope you have a nice new year

 

[Paul N Texas]

DW, First, Happy New Year from a COLD Texas, 30 degrees this morning! I just saw the article about the track on the local newspaper site. I did not know they were "converting", bad idea... My Grandparents had a dairy farm next to the Compton's farm, and I spent a lot of time on both places, and at the dairy growing up. Have a brother just S. of S'ville, and a sister in Columbus. We come up about once a year, and while there, go to the Palace for ice cream, and meet with some of the Patriot Guard Riders. Have made the show at the fairgrounds a few times with the antique tractor and equipment show. Usually get there in July or August, just too hot to be here

 

[Paul N Texas]

Mark, as I recall, that's in the Cold Country up there! Folks here just don't understand how warm 1 or 2 degrees above Zero can seem when it's been -15 or more below. I spent some time at Grissom AFB in the early 70's, and it always seemed colder there than in Shelbyville. I remember a lot of the equipment my Dad and Granddad worked on for folks. They were both Tool and Diemakers in town, and had a farm S. of town. I loved to hear them talk about the "old stuff" when we would go to a fair, or when someone came by about a repair. Not much real activity close to me most of the time, but we do have a nice show in October in Temple, Texas. Take care, and have a Happy New Year.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Paul, Texas can be pretty cold too. Was stationed at Ft. Hood. Was a different kind of cold though. Maybe because got so climatized too 100+ degree weather, or had mostly open plains not to block the wind, but was cold at times. Every year we'd watch news clips of the first snow falls in Texas while was groing up in Indiana, and we'd say them folks in Texas didn't know how to drive. Then I was stationed in Texas and ended up in the ditch myself, looking around to make sure no news guy was filming me to show my family back home. I figured some reasons roads get so slick down there. Heat and oil build up with no rain to wash it off, and something I noticed about a year ago when was in Dallas. They don't crown the highways down there. When it rains, they fill up like a pond instead of running off to the sides. Hydroplane city on my way to the airport to fly back home. Noticed something else too when I was there...folks fix their flood lights high up on their tree limbs in some posh areas of Dallas. Didn't hurt anything, but I'd never seen that before.

Anyways, Happy New Year to you and yours, thanks for jawing.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Happy New Year to you and yours as well. I too carry a rifle or pistol when out on the tractors, but not for rabbit hunting, although thats a great idea. I carry them for varments. Maybe will occasionally see a yote travelling a fence, maybe a field rat making its way towards feed.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Of course, could've had a Dad that pointed to you (me) and said "corn picker". Something that I've been seeing more and more of, especially just over the Michigan border. Bus loads of migrant workers on catwalks hanging out a few rows and fixed to both sides of the tractors taking the upper ears and chopping the stalks about midway down, then a picker comes by later in the season to take the lower ears and cut the stalks off.

 

[Mark - IN.]

We still have a lot of Amish, and no tractors either for them. Not that they can't afford them, they just don't. And then again, I see guys mortgaged to the hilt on some nice tractors. The Deere guy asked me to trade in one of mine for one that was nicer, did have an air conditioned cab, but was a mortgage that couldn't do half of what mine does, and mine was paid for. When I picked up my 4520, I asked how much for the 4520? He gave me an astronomical two digit figure. You gotta be kiddin me? Then he took me outside to show it to me and walked me in the wrong direction to some new air condioned cabbed piece of high $$$ tin that said 4520 on it, but wasn't any 4520 that I'd ever seen before. I pointed at the old sun faded dented iron across the lot lined up with the used iron and said "No, that 4520". $5K to get it off of his lot. Thats another good low $$$ stout tractor, and its paid for too. I may paint it one day, but it does have a new seat and spends the nights in the barn.

Happy and safe New Year to you and yours.

 

[Paul N Texas]

Mark, I've run across several from Indiana who spent time at Ft. Hood. It is a major place to say the least. When I worked in the Falls and McLennan Co. areas (Marlin and Waco) as a Deputy, we could hear and feel the rounds being fired on the "practice fields". My oldest son started as a Firefighter with Killeen, and is now a Lt. with the Copperas Cove F.D. You're right about the cold and the snow being a lot different. Oh, and Texans DEFINITELY don't know how to drive on ice, snow, and rain!! I stay at home when it snows or freezes. There is a little crown to most roads, but not as much as other places. Like you said, there is a lot of build up of oil on the roads, as there is not much to wash it off, but when it does rain, it's BAD. I was stationed at Lackland in San Antonio, then at Laughlin in Del Rio, and is what educated me there were warmer places than Indiana! I'm just outside of Hearne, which is about 60 miles S. Of Waco. We do get some of the colder weather here, as well as some of the hottest. A lot of vegatation, so it is a bit more humid. We had SNOW last Easter!! Knocked out power, and closed roads, businesses etc. This really was a snow, as it took down BIG trees, and actually had snow build up of 2-4 feet on the roads. Take care, and stay in touch. Not sure how far down you get in Texas, but if near this area, let me know, and maybe we can stop off for a "glass of tea", and some good BBQ someplace.

 

[Jerry/MT]

I saw A Rumley at the antique tractor show in Lynden or Sumas, WA several years ago. I grew up in Gary, Indiana about 30 miles from where they made them in LaPorte, Indiana. they were impressive to watch work.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Yep, went to the Rumely site and see where there's a plaque at the LaPorte hospital that now stands where the original machine shop stood.

Gary? I drive back and forth through there every weekend on my way to and from home. A year or so ago, our governor leased our tollroad to a spanish company for 75 years, said will take 1/3rd the money and build interstate 69 north and south (proposed canada to mexico highway) to "bring business to Indiana". Before I knew about the MexiCan highway plan, I attended a meeting and told governor to put the money into Gary. It has 6 or 7 interstates connecting it, attaches to chicago as midwest financial center, access to worlds busiest airport, has own airport and everyones looking to build a third in the area, has great lakes shipping, has railroad. Gave him a long list of why Gary has more potential than any city in Indiana, including Indy. I asked him why he thought business will come to wilderness just cause cut a new tollroad through it if won't come where have all the amenities that already exist? He responded, "The folks of Lake County (Gary) wouldn't vote for him". That was before finding out that the new I69 is slated to become the MexiCan Highway soon.

And I too love Rumelys.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Okie Dokie Paul. Sounds like a deal. Always figured I'd make it back to Texas some day to live out my life, just haven't made it. The company I work for, now the "new at&t" has a training facility down near Dallas in Irving, the old SBC gated compound/community. Next time they send me that way.