Yesterday's Tractors - Project Journal

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19:04 10/20/17 taking ole rusty apart

I retired from Law Enforcement after 36 years of service and needed something to present as mine. In my former business, there was not a feeling of accomplishment. Not like a contractor who can go by a building and say " That is here because of me." Sure, there was momentary senses of accomplish for locking up a bad guy or saving someone's life with CPR or other positive interactions, but new criminals take over for the ones on temporary assignment to prison and life goes on. So, this 1959 Case 420 B-H backhoe was at an estate auction and I had been looking for one to make my small pond larger on my 10 acre mini farm. Well, I was born in 1959 and decided it needed me as much as I needed it. The bid went my way and we went home together. When I loaded it up on my trailer, the deceased owner's son said he wished he could have kept it because of the memories but he was a city guy and had no use or storage. I told him I would take good care of it and honor his father's memory (a WWII paratrooper).
I brought it home and started digging in my pond and it worked like a champ but looked bad. I then loaned it to a neighbor to dig a trash pit. When I was giving him the pre-flight instructions, he said, " my dad had one just like it." When he brought it back later that day he said what a great feeling it was to be back on a 59 Case, it reminded him of his childhood. Weeks later, I was helping another neighbor our just past his house and saw him outside having a beer, I drove up his drive way on the backhoe and he was smiling when I stopped. He said it gave him a flashback to his dad pulling up the lane coming in for supper.
It was at that moment that I knew this had to be a good restoration job, after-all, it was honoring 2 men's fathers memories. I am going to surprise my neighbor when the restoration is complete as I had a custom decal made for it with his father's name on it and will put it on the tractor which will soon be "Merle"

The first photo entry will be pre-Merle and it goes by the name of Rusty.

*Comments*
YTSupport 05:43 10/22/17	I really respect having the specialized decal made. It's very much the same spirit of restoration we take. Honoring the history or the tractor and the people it represents to us. Thanks for sharing this.

Allis Chalmers	Case	Farmall IH	Ford 8N,9N,2N	Ford
Ferguson	John Deere	Massey Ferguson	Minn. Moline	Oliver