Was at an auction one time, things were going VERY SLOW. Lots of "miscellaneous" (loose translation- junk). I was getting tired of standing, so when he held up a lawn chair, I bid a buck and got it. I handed him my dollar, he handed me the chair, and I sat down in it. All went well until the coffee kicked in, and I had to use the facilities. Came back, and The World's Oldest Man was sitting in my chair. All the guys standing around had kind of a half smile on their faces, wondering what I would do. I did the only logical thing- just stood behind "my" chair, and didn't say a thing. Eventually, World's Oldest Man vacated (presumably to return to The Home in time for dinner), and I reclaimed my chair, with murmurs of approval from those there assembled.
That auction was in Silver Lake, Oregon- probably as quiet an area as you would ever find. I booked into the only "motel" in town the afternoon before the auction- 8 X 8 room, unpainted plywood walls, army cot bed, TV on a folding chair, only got PBS, and it was snowy. Bought a 6 pack and a cigar at the gas station/store that was part of the motel- had to teach the two elderly sisters how the magnetic swipe worked on my credit card so I could complete my purchase (one commented- "Good thing a flatlander came along- we might never have figured this thing out"). Put the TV on the floor, took the folding chair out onto the porch overlooking the main street to enjoy my cigar and libation.
Horse in the pen across the highway came wandering over to the street side of the pen when he saw me. I don't think he realized what valuable commercial real estate he was occupying. Having little else to do, I moseyed on over to introduce myself. He was very friendly, and especially liked it when I pulled some cheat grass from along the highway and fed it to him. His owner came out, and announced that the horse was the unofficial Silver Lake Tourism Bureau- he never tired of greeting new folks to town. I suspect the prospect of treats overrode his actual sense of civic pride.
I had my dinner that night at the cafe- there was a rack of books for customers to read, and I selected The History of Fort Rock, Oregon. I had always heard that my grandparents had homesteaded in Fort Rock in 1917, and lo and behold, there was a page devoted to them in the book. They were in an area called Loma Vista, and grandad had built a post office there after Grandma had been appointed post mistress. It was a pretty nice building, and after everyone bailed out of Loma Vista after 3 straight crop failures, they moved the post office to the town of Fort Rock and it became part of the community center. I did go and see it, and it was definitely the nicer half of the building. Grandparents never really planned on staying there- they took up the homestead in Grandma's name because Grandpa was a German immigrant who had never proved up on American citizenship, and in 1917, that was kind of an unhealthy situation. They were actually "hiding in plain sight."
I had some good times in my tractor jockeying days, and this may have been one of the best. Like walking into a time warp.
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo filesizes should be less than 300K and Videos, less than 2MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - 12-Volt Conversions for 4-Cylinder Ford 2000 & 4000 Tractors - by Tommy Duvall. After two summers of having to park my old 1964 model 4000 gas 4 cyl. on a hill just in case the 6 volt system, for whatever reason, would not crank her, I decided to try the 12 volt conversion. After some research of convert or not, I decided to go ahead, the main reason being that this tractor was a working tractor, not a show tractor (yet). I did keep everything I replaced for the day I do want to restore her to showroom condition.
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
1964 I-H 140 tractor with cultivators and sidedresser. Starts and runs good. Asking 2650. CALL RON AT 502-319-1952
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
