Suzette,
I grew up in a small town called Monango, North Dakota, (100 people) I am 63 now so this is a long time ago. I went back this June to see the old farm that my sister and her husband own, I went to the neighbor’s old farm.
When I was about seven or eight I rode on this very tractor (an M International) as a kid when our neighbor was stacking hay. The other tractor is a Case LA, and a John Deere 65 combine.
He has since died a long time ago and the farm stead is now abandoned, and his old equipment is now useless and lays where it was stopped so long ago frozen in time.
This is a poem I wrote thinking about the many hours of work they used to do, but now lay unwanted and frozen in time.
Enjoy…. (The tractors thoughts)
Dean Zinter
Tigard, Oregon
Oh, the days of my usefulness have come and gone, I sit here remembering when I was shiny and new and served my owners ever so faithfully…
My days of endless hours stacking hay, the times I hauled the grain to the elevator or the times my clutch peddle was squeaked, as a lure to coax up some gophers to shoot…
Yes, those cold days of winter, my water nearly froze, the hot days of summer it nearly boiled, but my usefulness still carried on…
The pitter-patter of little feet, the cry of wounded child who slipped and skinned a knee on my fender…
The endless miles I was driven by those little ones who sat on me going everywhere and going nowhere in the middle of the farm yard….
Those little ones have grown up now, they moved on, but I was old and rusted, so they left me behind….
My days of usefulness are gone now……but I sit here with all my memories, of all my owners who I have served so faithfully for years and years……..
What will become of me now……… will I slowly rust away into oblivion……..
Oh, how I wish those days where I was still needed would come again…….
Wait, in the distance….I hear a familiar sound…….the laughter of little ones…….. the cries of skinned knees…
Oh, if I am only discovered again…. I long for those words to be said………….. WOW!!! …this is really cool, look at this…….
Oh, how I wish those days where I was still needed would come again…….
So emotive. Such a shame these grand machines are being left by the wayside like that…