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
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
