{"id":8957,"date":"2021-05-18T22:38:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T02:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8957"},"modified":"2021-09-09T06:46:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T10:46:52","slug":"fwd-tractor-loaded-1953-international-w6-in-2021-en-route-to-movie-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=8957","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: TRACTOR Loaded 1953 INTERNATIONAL W6 IN 2021 EN ROUTE TO MOVIE SET"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODES  345   YES, IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOVE A TRACTOR<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
(TRACTOR Loaded 1953 INTERNATIONAL W6 IN 2021 EN ROUTE TO MOVIE SET)<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/font><\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/b><\/font><\/div>\n
May 18, 2021
<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n



<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
YES, IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOVE A TRACTOR<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

November 1965.  Cold with a smattering of snow in the air and on the ground.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a small auction crowd that clustered around a rather Spartan collection of <\/div>\n
possessions.  I would have expected the Smith family to have more bits and <\/div>\n
pieces by which to measure their lifetime.  Seemed like they had just been<\/div>\n
getting by\u2026hard scrabble farming.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
My cousin Eleanor Townsend\u2019s husband John Calder arrived jus in time.I needed <\/div>\n
his wisdom on that cold day.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cStart her up, Smith,\u201d hollered auctioneer Max Storey . \u201cBack her up\u2026now forward\u2026sound <\/div>\n
good\u2026shut her down\u201d<\/div>\n
And there it sat\u2026Smith still in the seat.<\/div>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a 1953 International W6\u2026runs like a charm\u2026been cared for\u2026pay no<\/div>\n
attention to the rust\u2026she purrs like a kitten.  Who will give me a thousand dollars?\u201d<\/div>\n
The crowd was silent.  Not a good sign for Mr. Smith whose winter jacket was worn enough<\/div>\n
to have stuffing popping out at the seams and one elbow. \u201c\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cJohn, what do you think?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGood tractor\u2026we have two of them on the Townsend farm.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTwo hundred,\u201d I waved my hand to Max who looked at me as if I was a thief. <\/div>\n
\u201ctwo fifty\u2026\u201d someone said<\/div>\n
\u201cThree hundred,\u201d I responded nervously.  Scared. <\/div>\n
\u201cThree fifty.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFour hundred,\u201d  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
And so I bought a tractor.  Big one.  <\/div>\n
forty five horsepower.  Really mine now.  But not<\/div>\n
back on our farm yet.   Next day Marjorie drove me to the Smith farm and I began<\/div>\n
the overland trip to our farm\u202620 or so miles away.   What a joyful trip.  That was<\/div>\n
when I fell in love with Old Betsy\u2026as we were huffing and puffing our way east<\/div>\n
to Erin township.  Cold day with a storm in the air.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Was this the same day that Marjorie\u2019s horse Spartacus got his tail caught in <\/div>\n
an errant length of barbed wire?  I believe it was.  Sparky bolted and<\/div>\n
dumped Marjorie and then began to high tail it home to the Fox farm on the<\/div>\n
Rockwood road.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We met.  Old Betsy with me at the wheel, and Sparky heading to his former home.<\/div>\n
\u2026riderless.   This venture was becoming troublesome.  What should I do?<\/div>\n
Where was Marjorie\u2026was she hurt?   Then she drove over a rolling hill <\/div>\n
stopped breathlessly to tell me about the barbed wire which was still<\/div>\n
attached to Sparky\u2019s tail she thought.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll go get him\u2026you take the tractor to the farm. Sparky is just heading<\/div>\n
to the only home he knows\u2026Al Fox\u2019s place.  We\u2019ll put him in  he stable<\/div>\n
and get him later.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
And so I continued my little Odyssey.   Some events in our lives<\/div>\n
are written in indelible ink in our brains.  This November day in <\/div>\n
1965 was one of them.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Before we had the kids we had a great life.  I learned how to operate<\/div>\n
a drag three furrow plough while Marjorie explored the Erin township<\/div>\n
side roads with Spartacus.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
In 1868 we started our family with the birth of Kevin.  Marjorie sold<\/div>\n
Spartacus to a doctor\u2019s wife living near Hornby.  She took that<\/div>\n
last ride with Sparky south on the fifth line. I believe she cried most of the way.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We never sold old Betsy though.  She is still with us.  Today<\/div>\n
our second son Andrew and one of his friends Shawn loaded old<\/div>\n
Betsy on the back of this truck.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
She is not running any more.  But she is not heading for the<\/div>\n
scrap yard either.  For the next few months Old Betsy will be<\/div>\n
a movie star beside a derelict barn somewhere near Ancaster.<\/div>\n
“<\/div>\n
\n
\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODES  345   YES, IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOVE A TRACTOR (TRACTOR Loaded 1953 INTERNATIONAL W6 IN 2021 EN ROUTE TO MOVIE SET) alan skeoch May 18, 2021 YES, IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOVE A TRACTOR November 1965.  Cold with a smattering of snow in the air and on the ground. It was a small […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}