When I am getting acquainted with a person, certain aspects of his or her personality sometimes bubble up as sort of a reverse red flag. Instead of being a warning, like the red flag would be, these aspects immediately signal to me that I have had the good fortune to encounter a person of uncommon depth.
I don’t have a checklist of those characteristics and it would take me a week to form one. But I know them when I see them. I remember, for instance, a man who was an enthusiastic promoter of his hometown. More than just a cheerleader, he personified this old saw from start to finish: “I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.”
Pride is in no short supply these days, although much of it, frankly, seems misdirected, but that is a topic for another day. As a card-carrying dinosaur, I remember the days when students felt pride in their school. Surely some of you remember the Beach Boys singing Be True to Your School! Shoot, when I was a kid, statehood day (Kansas Day!) was a major event on the school calendar each year when we were carefully taught to feel pride in our state.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying, when I visited with Jim Frank early this summer about his collection of family tractors, he really got my attention when he said this: “I like telling the kids about my forebears who were involved in agriculture, how they worked very hard to make a living at it.”
Jim’s featured collection does not showcase rare tractors. It is not concerned with low serial numbers or exquisitely authentic restorations or unique features. Instead, it is totally committed to honoring farmers in two families who carved out a livelihood from the land, supported their families and built enduring legacies of their own. Quite simply, Jim’s collection shows his pride in his family heritage. His story will likely resonate with many of you, and it is one we enjoy sharing!
Leslie C. McManus
