Pioneer Memories

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!.......From ancient times until the 1920's, horsepower was just that, "Horse Power". I remember as a kid, sitting on the seed box, riding along and listening to the 'squeaks' and the 'jangles' of the grain drill that can only be heard when pulled by horses. Listening to the heavy breathing and smelling the sweat of the horses as they labored under those endles loads, has left a lasting appreciation of the "Iron Horse" that made a lot of noise but never seemed to get tired.

My most vivid memory of the first tractor, that my dad bought, way back in the 20's made so much noise when it was being started in the morning, that I would run and hide and watch from a safe distance, as the smoke rings coming from the exhaust floated off into space. After the tractor was running and my sensitive ears became used to the noise, it was difficult to keep me off the tractor.

The "Memories" of those "Pioneer" boyhood days on the homestead in northeastern Montana, are all wrapped around family, fun, church, and the intrigue of that monster, a 15-30 McCormick-Deering tractor. To this day I still associate International Harvester tractors with my father and the Godly example he was to us as wild boys.

Through the years a number of people have left a lasting impact on me personally and in their community where they lived. As a teenager I had the priviledge of working for an Allis-Chalmers dealer where work ethics were learned. The time at a Case and Oliver dealership, honesty, integrity, and community responsibilities were taught. The years at a larger John Deere dealership, many dimentions of character building were demonstrated, one of which was the encouragement of weekly, in house Bible studies, on company time.

The "Tractor Memories" of the past and the people that sold and serviced them have left me with this indelible impression and treasure of associating individual makes and models of tractors with individual people that have contributed so much to my life.