feature night tonight?

Thanks Samn 40,,... for keeping the feature night rolling! There was one more sugestion for feature night from Mark W,,,,,,,he would like us all to post a tribute to our parents or grandparents,, Now if everyone likes feature night ,we need more sugestions,and if anyone would like to take a turn to post it say the word!

My grandfather passed away before I was born. I've been told that he was an advocate of using purebred bulls for herd improvement back around 1918 - 1928. The county agent would pick up grandfather in his buggy and they would hold meeting in local schoolhouses for area farmers.

It was common practice in those days for farmers to keep one of their own bull calves to use as "cow fresheners" - which resulted in inbred "scrub" offspring.

Grandfather designed and made an overshot stacker before he left Iowa. JD heard of it an bought the patent rights from him - and then told him that he couldn't make one of his own because they now owned the patent. After he moved to ND, he thought that they would never hear about it so he built his own, plus one for my dad and an uncle. We used that overshot stacker until dad bought a Case hand-tie wire baler in 1947.

I often think of my grandfather Biron E. Decker. He grew up in Pennsylvania where he attended Penn State earning his degree in agriculture education. After graduation he moved to NW PA, Edinboro, where he taught at the local high school. While here he started many FFA programs in the neighboring counties. He also judged at many local fairs. At one time he had one of the longest running shows on wqln called Garden and Farm. He had a nursery, a tree farm, and a real passion for agriculture and animal husbandry. He passes in 1999 and I still think of him often.

My grandfather died when my dad was a kid. He farmed with massey Harris, Oliver and John deeres. My dad was able to track down his massey Harris 30 quite a few years ago. It was a basket case. My dad put her all back together, put the wide front under it and we gave it a barn yard paint job with safety red rust oleum paint going on probably 15 years ago now. She"s been outside and still looks good. We still use it on our farm now, fun to rake hay and stuff with. The only peice of iron we own that no one has enough money to buy. Hopefully will be a forth generation farming with it. The story goes from my dad and uncle that my grandfather went to the dealer and they had ten or so of these 30"s on the lot and he drove every one and liked this one the best so he bought it. I wish we could have got ahold of his 101 sr but it got turned into a puller here in ny then someone bought it from Tennessee or a southern state and traded a farmall m for it about 10 years or so ago. Maybe the guy who traded for it will read this and want to sell it back up here. Today"s my dads birthday coincidently so hopefully this is a good tribute to his dad today. So there"s my tribute, I gotta go milk my cows now, great feature tonight.

I never knew either of my "real" grandfathers- they both passed on before I was born. But my maternal grandmother remarried, so Ellis Bramlett, my step-grandfather, was the only one I ever knew.

He grew up in Arkansas, and was the son of a share-cropper. He rose above his raisin', got a degree in Education, and taught high school manual arts for 30 some years. He was retired when he married Grandma, but continued to do carpentry work, often with my dad. He was an excellent craftsman.

He and Grandma always had Sunday dinner with us, when we had the dairy. He would help with the garden, and then do things with "us kids" for the afternoon. One time, he saw me throwing up rocks and hitting them with my stick "bat". He said "I think you need a real baseball bat", so we found an ash sapling of proper size, and he carved me a bat. Told me not to hit rocks with it, and bought me a baseball to hit. I used it for a couple of years, until I finally had enough power to break it, and that was that.

My cousin, who "wasn't quite right", stayed with us each summer. One time, their project was a surfboard that Jim could use in the creek (?). It was a piece of 3/4" plywood, about 18" wide and 3 feet long, rounded in front and square in back, painted up nicely, and Jim was going to stand on it and paddle around our creek. Well, I may have only been 6 years old, but I knew that sure as heck wouldn't work. When I started to say something, Grandpa shushed me by silently putting his fingers over his lips. When we were alone, he said "You're right, it won't work. But Jim was all excited about it, and we don't need to burst his bubble. Let him try it, and we'll go from there."

He continued to work on volunteer projects well into his 80's. He was the lead man on building the new Nazarene church in Centralia, WA (he was a Methodist, but when it came to volunteer work, he was non-denominational), and came home one afternoon and told Grandma that he was tired, and was going to take a nap on the couch while she fixed dinner. He never woke up.

RIP Ellis Bramlett, 188X- 1965, the best grandpa ever.

Tribute to Dad & Mom. Both married late in life, he an old bachelor farmer and she an old maid schoolteacher. Both had more confidence in what my brother and I could accomplish than anyone I could imagine, and they encouraged us to go for our goals. Health problems prevented Mom and Dad from doing all the normal play and sports things that parents do with kids, but they darn sure taught both of us how to work and think independently. You can't get a better start in life than that. They are both long gone now, but I miss them still.

I would like to make a tribute to my mom and dad too, My dad taught my brother and I To work,at the time I didnt realize how important that was,so thank you dad,,,my mom made sure we could be kids once in a while,saved her pennies to take us on some kind of vacation each summer,took us to streams to fish on opening day trout season,came to see us at schoolplays or sports,thank you mom,,,, I had great parents,,thank you mom and dad

We grew up on the farm My grandfather owned. He loved My next younger brother. The rest of us His only interest was to entice us close enough to hit with his cane (not joking). My other Grandfather was my fishing buddy. The highlight to My Summer was to get to stay with Him for a week and go fishing every afternoon at His lake house. One of the proudest moments in My life was when He participated in My Deacon ordination service. He was Dada to me but "Mr. Dan" to everyone else not that he was a big tough Man but for the respect people had for him and the life he lived.
Ron

My Grandparents emigrated from Canada in 1938. Joeseph William Warren hopped a train to Western Canada when he was 15 and worked his way back east. Shortly after that he married my grandmother Alice Reynolds. After they moved to US my grandfather ran a dairy farm, sailed the great lakes, was a longshoreman, had a sugarbush owned a sawmill, and worked out at various other jobs. They raised 11 kids. He passed away at 77 in 1987. My grandmother died two years ago at 94. She had 134 grandchildren, great grand children, and great-grandchildren, and the family continues to grow. Out of that there are only two of us left farming. They left quite a legacy in our small town here in NNY. These are my father's parents. My mother's side had 11 children as well. They were also farmers and my grandfather worked in several zinc and lead mines in the area. Their names were Louis Cutway and Zelia Petrie. I don't know a lot of the family history on this side of the family, but I do know they came back east from S. Dakota, and my grandmother was part Blackfoot indian. My brother has a picture of my grandfather with Lawerence Welk in grade school together.

My maternal grandfather was my friend, mentor and the man I wanted to be more than anything in the world. His name was Vernon Dillon, born and raised in Safe, MO. He was the hardest working man I knew. When he woke in the morning, he put on his pants and tended his livestock before coming back in the house for his breakfast. He raised cattle, hogs, had a feedlot, raised corn, wheat, oats and of course hay. He worked a full time job in the fire clay mining industry.
I was grateful to know all of my grandparents and even some memories of great grandparents. All were farmers and survived the depression here on the farm. Again grateful that they instilled in me, the love of the land. If not for them, I would not be doing what I love to do today. Thank you Vernon and Viola Dillon, Hub and Olive Feeler.

Grandpa Dillon with his JD 50 and new JD Van Brunt grain drill.
He had two of those 50's. I have one now and I am pretty sure my brother has this one.


My Grandpa Dillon and his Duroc hogs.



My Grandpa Dillon to the left, his brother in law, Babe, who worked for him in the middle and grandpa's father in law, my great grandpa. Who lost his arm in a corn binder, or maybe cutter, I think...


My Grandpa Dillon, as I remember him. Sure do miss him...

Pics make the best tribute... Great Grandparents/Grandparents on both sides and last 4 are Mom/Dad. Love them all and miss them all dearly. We take it all for granted while they are here but it all ends so quickly. Thank God for their foresight to take photos. Bet they never in their wildest dreams thought they would be on the computer screen. Tears are coming , I'm done. RB

Frank at 18, joined the Army Air Corps at seventeen years of age, got out after WWII, joined again for Korea and made a life of it. Retired in 1976. He is in Arlington now. Miss him every day

That's a great tribute!

My paternal grandparents.... as my other grandparents died real young, so I don't have memories of them.

Grandpa served in World War I. He was ill for a long time after the war due to poison that I think was called Mustard Gas. He and grandma didn't have kids until quite late in life, due to his bad health. But ultimately they raised 4 kids.

After recovering most of his health, grandpa became a farmer. They had the typical farm back in the day... cows, hogs, chickens, ducks, geese. They worked hard together on everything. They had a huge garden and canned everything imaginable from meat to garden produce to wild berries and plums - grandpa would help with canning because he was mostly retired by the time I can remember him. They butchered their own meat. Grandma always washed her clothes with a wringer washer and hung them on the line to dry. (She refused to get a modern washer and dryer until the late 1970's... and only conceded then, because she had cancer and could no longer handle laundry the old way).

Grandpa had a great sense of humor and liked to tease us grandkids. Another neat quality he had was that he NEVER told us kids to "go outside and play" to get rid of us at family gatherings. Instead he would think up a "job" that needed doing and offer the grandchild who accomplished the most to earn a small reward. So he would get us buckets and send us out to "pick up acorns of the lawn so I don't have to mow over them" or "gather up helicopter seeds from Maples...because I might want to plant a new grove someday" -- pretty smart old feller... kept us busy all afternoon and the adults could visit in peace.

He smoked a pipe and would give us grandkids an empty pipe to "smoke" while we sat under a shade tree and pondered life with him. That is, until grandma would peek outdoors, see us kids with pipes... and say, "Achhhh... don't fool with those old pipes - come inside and have a cup of coffee with me." So we would. LOL

They were a great old couple of German ancestory. ALL of us cousins would go and stay with them for a week or two in the summertime. Grandma was a marvelous cook. When they did not want us grandkids to know what they were talking about they always conversed in German so we could not understand. They were great people! Hard working, fun loving, all 'round great people.

My grandpa was in WW1 as well and I remember them talking about mustard gas.

My Mom and Dad:

Dad was always there to teach. I never wanted to miss a chance to ride along on the tractor. Always enjoyed that, and when he borrowed grandpa's 1950 Chevrolet pickup to take a tire to town to get fixed. I can remember the old wire spring seat and the "cushion" on top and the octagon starter button on the floor. Had a lot of wonderful times with him doing something so simple. He worked long hours to provide for all of us (as Im sure many parents and grandparents on here did). He was in Korea from 1951 to 1953 and was always proud of serving, but never spoke much in to detail about it. He was always there with words of encouragement. When I started making reproduction tractor parts he was helping me on a part but I couldn't figure out how to get the corners right on a part...he finally kind of chuckled and said I give up, but he said keep plugging away at it, you'll get it...and I did. Later in life he ended up getting cancer and emphysema but rarely really complained about it. He always said You have to live the life your given. He passed away in 1999. I was 33 at the time.
My mom wrapped coils for generators during WW2. At the end of the day she would go out back and look at the ones that were discarded. She said she could always tell which ones she wrapped as she is left handed and they were wrapped opposite of everyone else's. She always said she didn't see any of hers in the pile. She was always there to help with things. In 1978 she was diagnosed with RP which is an eye disease that you end up with tunnel vision. Even though it was hard on her she always said she was grateful for what sight she did have. In my high school years she would sit and listen to music with me...my music from the early 1980s. She still enjoys a lot of it. What kid can say that about their mom now days? When she was growing up she asked her mom to teach her to play the piano but grandma said Im not a teacher so she taught herself to play piano. She is 87 now and has had dementia for the last few years. It is hard to see someone go through that.