Thursday, August 01, 2013

Buying a memory... again. We love old tractors.

Several years back, after Cliff bought his handy-dandy little John Deere tractor, he decided he wanted a motorcycle.  Unfortunately, he didn't have enough money for that.  So he sold the Allis Chalmers D-17 Series IV that both our kids practically learned to drive on.  He didn't need the tractor, it's true.  But we loved it!  The kids and I were emotionally connected to it.  
Recently Rachel and I tried to convince him to trace down the current owner of said tractor and see if he could buy it back.  
No dice.  The guy doesn't use it for anything, he only drives it down to the mailbox once in awhile.  But he wants to keep it.  
"That's just as well," Cliff told me.  "The engine was smoking when I sold it.  It would be past due for an overhaul by now."  

I started whining at Cliff to buy me another Allis Chalmers.  I didn't specify a D-17, Series IV, because I knew that would take a large portion of his tractor fund if it was a decent one.  I would have settled for an Allis Chalmers C or WD or WD 45.  My uncles, and later on my cousin Gerald, farmed with Allis Chalmers tractors when I was a kid.  My blood runs Allis Chalmers orange.

But we saw this ad on Craigslist:

Today we bought that tractor.  The fork attachment that wasn't included was thrown in for an extra $100, and there were other extras that are important to Cliff.  When we get it home I'll do an entry for my tractor-loving friends, listing the good and bad things about the tractor.  For a tractor its age, though, there is a lot more good than bad.  
The man selling the tractor seemed to be a straight shooter.  He pointed out some of the faults the old forty-seven-year-old tractor had.  Cliff is so familiar with that particular kind of tractor that he knew what to look for.  He could probably work on a D-17 in his sleep.  
I'm happy.  Our daughter is happy.  I thought I remembered her doing an entry on her blog the day Cliff sold our original Allis, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  Then I realized it was somewhere on her old AOL blog. 
I think our son will be happy, although I haven't heard from him yet.  

Poor Cliff.  His tractor fund has shrunk considerably.

4 comments:

  1. I felt silly about admitting it, but I cried several times over a period of a few days after Allis was sold. Broke my heart. This makes me SO happy.

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  2. That is a very cool tractor--not that I know much!! Glad that you can recapture some of those wonderful memories.

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  3. Congrats on the new old tractor.

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  4. Glad you can both enjoy this tractor. It may have depleted the fund somewhat, but it'll offer up hours of pleasure I'm sure!

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