I don"t have any interesting facts about Red Power Round-Up, but what I can offer is a newbies experience at my first RPRU in Lima, Ohio.
I grew up in the country, not farm country, but the backwoods. People there are kind, hard working, and some of the nicest people you"ll meet. After meeting my wife and moving out of the woods and into the open fields of farm country I gained a new respect for farmers and the like. These folks keep to themselves, mainly because they have to much work to complete on any given day, but when time permits, it"s a farmer who will strike up a meaningful conversation, one that you"ll not soon forget.
Red Power Round-Up is a gathering, of not only farmers but enthusiasts interested in the nostalgia of working the land with some of the most innovative tractors, vehicles, equipment, and implements history had to offer. Many have put their hay in, tilled the land and sewed their crops by the time the middle of June as arrived and the annual trip across the country or up the road to RPRU is next on the list. For a newly converted country to farm boy, RPRU was a learning experience, a chance to join a brotherhood who have looked to the past for inspiration and understand the importance of history in today"s world. As I looked over the vast rows of red tractors I realized that I was not alone, my obsession with 70 year old iron was something others shared, and in many cases they had the red fever worse than I did!
I walked through row upon row of tractor and implements, taking in all the great detail each tractor provides. The paint gleamed, the cast was strong, the time taken to clean every ounce of grease and dirt from every crack and crevice was magnificent. And then you realize that someone has sweat, bleed, and cussed at this machine many a time, much like I have in my own shop, and you feel a kinship with that person. I was lucky to shake many hands those three days while I was in Ohio. The stories of restoration were wonderfully educational, but it was the stories of where those tractors came from that were truly spellbinding.
To look at an F-20 and stare in amazement at it"s detailed restoration is one thing, but to hear how that F-20 had been in that particular gentlemen"s family four generations touches you deep down. To learn that it was on the bucket list of the man who originally bought that tractor brand new, to restore it to it"s original glory yet never found the time is hard to listen to. But then to look down and see a placard stating "this tractor was lovingly restored in the memory of..., by his great grandson...," you get a jolt of electricity running through you that lasts until you get home. Or to listen to an old timer as he stands next to his first Farmall M and tells you of times gone by, of how the M was considered overkill, "Who in their right mind would need a tractor this large and powerful!" Or maybe to listen to him tell you that the Farmall M was responsible for the population boom across the country and the world, because if "it weren"t for that M we would never have been able to work as much land as we did, grow as much food as we did, and feed as many as we did!" I remember looking at a beautiful Farmall 400 high-crop propane and hearing a small tractor coming down the row. As many of us turned we noticed a John Deere garden tractor pulling a wagon with a younger lady in it. We all started breaking the guys stones, "Tractors are red, crops are green" we yelled! All in good fun mind you.
As we walked out those gates on the final day of the show I remember talking with my wife and her uncle about how we were going to get back to next years show. The 12 hour drive back to New York was spent looking at pictures, discussing the stories we had heard and the people we had met. It was more than a collection of tractors, it ran deeper than just the color red, it was a gathering of friends, many who had never met before, and that didn"t matter!
Anthony Finelli Salem, New York Certified Social Studies Teacher
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