Massanutten Antique Tractor and Gasoline Engine Club

From "the Loko Corner"

WARNING: Due to the graphic descriptions and adult themes in the following
                       story, reader discretion is strongly advised as the content might
                       prove to be offensive to some!
                       IN SOME INSTANCES, NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE
                       INNOCENT..........AND PERHAPS THE GUILTY!

Nothing runs like a Deere. Some things just run better!

Chapter Six

And then there was "Bob". Robert H. Jones was a product of "the first great depression", a coal miner, a World War II Vet, a frustrated Pennsylvania farmer living on three acres of land in New Jersey, a welder and sheet metal mechanic by trade and as is said, "a jack of all trades." Robert was also my father-in-law. He and my mother-in-law owned a "three acre plus or minus" piece of land in New Jersey. A good part of that property was taken up by a pond. On the rest was the house, a small barn, a chicken coop a large garden for food production and a fenced off area for the animals, (sheep, ducks, turkeys, chickens and beef cattle). Well, you can't run a farm without a tractor so he bought or traded something for an old Farmall tractor. I don't know where this tractor came from or how it was taken care of before Bob got it but I do know that after this poor old tractor came to live with Bob, it had a rough life. Where ever it stopped at the end of the day is where it stayed until the next time it was needed. It never saw the inside of a barn. It sat out in all kinds of weather 24/7/365. There were times that it rebelled from this type of treatment and absolutely refused to run. Its owner would cuss and spit and kick the old tractor a few times but eventually after a few hours of working on it, it would fire up again. My father-in-law's idea of "preventative maintenance" was to do only what was absolutely necessary to keep a piece of machinery running. I don't think that old tractor ever had an oil change and only rarely, when nothing else would work or could not be "presidentally engineered", did it get real, genuine IHC parts. Usually, it got "hand me downs" like used spark plugs, ignition wires, belts, tires, etc., etc.. Believe me. this old tractor got more than its fair share of "bailing wire repairs". It had no muffler, all the guages were broken, mismatched car tires were and still are on the front, the paint is almost non-existent and is a beautiful shade of rust, the seat is rusted out, steering wheel is all cracked, it is missing many parts, needs tires all around and hasn't run in over ten years. I guess you have a pretty fair picture and a pretty good idea of what the old boy looks like. When my father-in-law emmigrated from "The Peoples Republic Of New Jersey", we trucked that old tractor down here to Virginia and the first thing that I did was to put it into a nice warm, dry barn. Eventually, my father-in-law, Robert H. Jones gave me "that old tractor". I had no problem picking a name for this 1947 Farmall B. "BOB" now dozes in the barn waiting for some TLC and a total restoration. Your day will come. "REST IN PEACE, BOB."

To be continued