Letters to the Editor

I couldn't help writing after reading your "First Things" article on "Turning Back the Hands of Time." I had an experience like Dale Jensen. I remember walking home from school in 1949 where I attended a one-room school. I was 13 and down the road ahead of me came a bright and shiny new International tractor. The closer it came I recognized my dad on the seat. He had just bought a new 1949 Farmall M and came part of the way to school to pick me up. I always felt that I could still smell the fresh, new paint on that M, even though I am now 71 years old.

Recently, I had to pick up a lawn mower at our local Case-International tractor dealership. I drove my pickup around the building to the mower shop and there was a semi tractor delivering a new tractor. It was a big tractor with cab and enough horsepower to pull my house off its foundation … and there was that smell! I stopped and told the semi driver about it, and he invited me to crawl into the cab and sit in it a while. It is a nice memory. The driver was polite and didn't laugh at me.

In those days it was my dream to be a farmer, but I was guided in other ways and became an Illinois Bell telephone man for 30 years. I now live on a little farm 1 mile from where we used that M and still own the H we had at the time.

I enjoy Farm Collector, especially the Dale Jensen article and the article about the Farmall Cub (Farm Collector, November 2007, "Top of the Class," page 24). I pass on my copies to others to read and enjoy.

- Wallace Bertram
R.R. 1, Box 193
Shobonier, IL 62885