Larry has an old Ford tractor and I have a John Deere. Being men, we always harass each other about our rides and about what brand is better than the other. It seems that we all have our own special brand. The same thing applies to vehicles. My truck is better than your truck because mine is a so and so and yours is a whatchmaycallit. Back and forth, guys banter all the time about make and model.

I had seen Larry one day mowing his pasture and he had attached a John Deere mower to his Ford tractor. Now, I will never downgrade a man’s ride (wait…yes I will) but the mower appeared in much better shape than the tractor. The mower seemed to have a reasonable coat of paint on it but the tractor hadn’t seen paint in 20 years. The mower seemed to be reasonably free of rust and dents, but you would be hard to spot a dent-free place on his tractor. I was ragging on him about that fancy John Deere mower he was pulling behind his Ford. I told him that somewhere, someplace in some Tractor Bible I had read once, that the scripture said, “Thou shall not degrade thy John Deere mower by pulling it with a Ford power unit.”

Larry stared at me for a moment and I could see the wheels clicking in his brain. He then grinned at me and said, “The only way a Deere can run is if it is being pulled by a Ford!” Ohhhhhhh….he got me and he got me good!

I was thinking about tractors again today as my friend Harvey Metzler mentioned his Dad. I have lived on Hufsmith Road a majority of my 56 years of life. When I was a youngster, the road used to be a dirt road and part of our daily activity was running to the living room window to see who was driving down the road. At night, I can still remember my brother and sisters shoving and elbowing each other to stick our face against the screen-wired window to see which of our neighbors was headed home so late at night. I actually used to play in the dirt down in the ditch with my toys when I was little. It is very, very possible that on a few occasions not one person would have driven down our road.

As time passed, the 90-degree turns were made into soft curves and the road was blacktopped. Mr. Frank Metzler and his family lived west of us on Hufsmith Road and they still owned property on the East end of Hufsmith they called “The Farm”. I can still recall that during different times of the year, Mr. Metzler would slowly drive by our home with his Ford tractor in tow behind his Ford truck. I had never seen a truck pull a tractor on the road very often, but Mr. Metzler had a special hitch made and he would pass by our home about once a week with his tractor in tow. I always thought it was neat to see a piece of equipment that is built for off-road use to be running up and down the road at speeds that made the big tires look like they were about to take flight. I know he never got over 20 miles an hour or so, but the sight of this tractor on the road always intrigued me.

Many years ago I used to work for a man named Johnny Bonds. Johnny owned a company that mowed the side of the highways, and of course 99% of the days work was driving a tractor. We used to see a lot of strange things while mowing the grass on highways and a lot of strange things could happen too. You would be very surprised what you can see from the seat of a tractor. You could always find a few good things hidden in the grass. Tools, chains, rope and even money were a few of the things I picked up. It was even stranger to see what some people would do behind the wheel of their car too! I enjoyed the work but on some days those long, long stretches of highway could become very lonely. The sound of the tractor and the attachments would develop a monotone sound to the ear. You could tell simply by the sound of the equipment if the machine was running properly.

There is something very relaxing about tractor work. There are some days that I can go to the ranch and climb on my tractor and simply drive around the property as a stress reliever. I have a front end loader and it sometimes feels good to simply pick up something that you know you can’t move by hand and maneuver it from one spot to another, simply because you can. Not because you have to but because you can!

Whether it’s a Ford, a Deere, a Case or any other brand, tractor driving is something I really enjoy. If I could just figure out a way to handle phone calls and e-mails while on my tractor I may move my office to a tractor seat. You think that’s funny? I actually saw an older model tractor yesterday that had a good sized TV screen mounted on the hood. I figured the screen was worth more than the tractor. I need to look into that. A heated and cooled cabin, TV screen, GPS, cell phone, wow…..

Clifford

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