The town where I grew up has a pioneer museum. Full of old buildings representing the period 1900 to 1950's in western canada.The best part of the museum is an extensive collection of old tractors and farm machinery.. I should have counted but I think I'm safe in saying they had over 20 tractors in one line up outside, and another 15 or 20 that we ran around the grounds for the parade. The parade is the coolest thing, they are always short of drivers, so if your so inclined you just walk over to the lineup before parade time, and pick your tractor of choice. This year they were a bit short of drivers, so I was assigned a little VA Case for the first lap, and then Ran a 1927 Unstyled D John Deere running on steel as my second ride. These two were joined by an assortment of vintage tractors from the 1920's through the 40's: Here's a brief list of parade tractors from my recollection: Farmall H, F30, W4, W6
John Deere: A, AR, D's, MHD?
Case: D, LA, VA, Cockshutt: 30
Massey Harris 33, 101
Several Small Allis Chalmers
Minni Molines as well. The parade was lead by a large CASE Steamer, that then gets belted up for the thrashing display after the parade. My wife was out of town with our digital camera, or I'd have shot a bunch of pictures. I'll have to go back one of these days and capture the entire collection, cause it is amazing in not only the variety, but in the condition which the tractors are kept. Volunteers work on a few tractor's each year getting them back into running condition. The thing I appreciate is that while several tractors are freshly painted, they usually just get the tractor running mechanically and may leave a working original paint job alone if it isn't completely rusted out.
It's fabulous to walk up to a tractor like I did today, and have it fire right up, idle smoothly and tool around the grounds, even though it last may have been used in the field over 65 years ago.
It was a nice day all around, and I really enjoyed the smiles and greetings from the crowd, many of whom are senior citizen's. Being a small community, often the audience knew the original owner of the tractor passing by, and perhaps for a moment thought fondly of a lost friend or neighbour.
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