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The text on the sign begins "Massey-Harris made three unique tractors for the military in the mid 1950s..."
Twenty-six of those were I-162 tractors for the U.S. Army, of which this is a surviving example. Tractor collecting and military vehicle collecting are both pretty esoteric hobbies. I suppose at their confluence is military tractor collecting, a hobby whose annual conventions could likely be held in a broom closet.
I've noticed in the field of firearms collecting that the narrower the field, the more knowledgeable and obsessed the participants, and I'll bet you this guy could talk the hind legs off a mule on such minutiae as military tractor oil filter specifications...
They may be few and far between but they have considerable pull amongst themselves.
ReplyDeleteHeh. That's funny right there...
ReplyDeleteSo Tam, if mil tractor fanatics are fanatic, what does that make people who collect & restore things like SeaBee 'dozers?
ReplyDeletehttp://classicdozers.wordpress.com/military-dozers/
I used to work with a guy who restored and raced older model tractors (tractor pulls are a hoot). His attic is full of trophies. A guy in another part of the state sets all his carbs. The tweaker refuses to tell anyone just what he does, but man, those things will haul bale! Kinda made me wonder if the mechanic was a frustrated NASCAR crew chief.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
We had a Massey-Harris very much like this one on the farm when I was a kid. It was a very faded red.
ReplyDeleteA tractor-collecting convention held in a broom closet?
ReplyDeleteMust be pretty small tractors...
Everything else aside, I love that color. That is one pretty tractor. I bet that is what British Racing Green would look like if British Racing Green were cool.
ReplyDeleteThat obsession with minutiae is what keeps me out of re-enacting. That and the fact that my current employer (part-time) provides me frequent opportunity to, um..."enact."
ReplyDeleteDuring my second deployment I found myself reading an online article on Civil War canteen stoppers, corks and the like. It was a long article, well-sourced. The article went unfinished, since I realized that I had no business being so bored - even downrange - as to make reading an article on canteen corks a worthwhile pastime.
I hope there's no such thing as OIF/OEF re-enacting. There probably won't be - hadji's uniforms aren't nearly as cool as the Germans so there would be a shortage of OPFOR.
Besides, I really don't want to endure some bozo telling me how wrong the kit I wore was based on his "research." (for example, I have photos of me at FOB Warhorse in 3-color desert cammies, old-style Fritz helmet, Woodland-pattern body armor and M1958 web-gear).
gvi
Beg pardon - M1956.
ReplyDelete"I'll bet you this guy could talk the hind legs off a mule on such minutiae as military _____".
ReplyDeleteFill in the blank for the resident mil gunnie geek at any funshow.
More run-of-the-mil (ha) but just as sleep-inducing.
-chaz-
In the Army of those days the best insurance you had for not ending up on that tractor was knowing how to operate it.
ReplyDeleteYou've heard "right way, wrong way and the Army way"?
It's literally true. A farmer knows the right way and the Army figured it takes more time to unlearn that then teach their way than to just teach someone who has no clue.
And speaking of mil training, no word on tractor training but:
ReplyDeletehttp://news.msn.com/us/atlanta-high-school-offers-rotc-rifle-range
Go ATL!
-chaz-
All this talk just makes me want an International Harvester M1 Garand.
ReplyDeleteThat obsession with minutiae is what keeps me out of ....
ReplyDeleteYeah, what GVI said. But it's not just re-enactors. See the middle panel.
Tam:
ReplyDeleteMethinks you have a tractor thing.
My dad needs to find a new hobby in his advanced age, so I'll give you an inside scoop on his WWII-era Farmall M.
You're not getting anywhere near my Fergie, though. I still use her regularly to bush-hog the weeds that the finicky equine won't touch in the pasture.
Tractor? Sniff! That ain't much of a tractor.
ReplyDeleteNow, this is a tractor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_Tractor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pzDNvRQGos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vea4VvAELkk
http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=9997
Tractors are so much more fun when you can mount a M2 on one:
http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=7474
So far we've had an Army tractor, a Navy tractor, and a Marine Corps tractor (the yolk of oxen.) Does the Flash Gordon tractor cover the USAF, or do they need a hovercraft?
DeleteWV: techniva - Russian for technician?
Argh. Yoke of oxen. I can't even blame autocorrect for that one. I'll blame lack of coffee instead.
ReplyDeleteOx eggs? Must make a helluva omelet.
ReplyDeleteDammit Ian, you effed up my yoke, I mean joke. :)
ReplyDeleteGVI --
ReplyDeleteAbout ten years ago, I saw a group (ROTC cadets) reenacting DESERT STORM at a Living History event. They argued about their uniforms and kit with my buddy, until he pointed out, "Kid, you're doing MY BATTALION, and I WAS THERE. Hell, I kept my DBUs and THEY STILL FIT."
Yup. That's it in a nutshell. If there is ever an OIF/OEF "living history" event, I won't go to it until I'm too old and demented to remember anything constructive.
ReplyDeleteI have a similar story involving a Civil War re-enactment my buddy talked me into going, a "stitch nazi" and a pocket watch.
Before that, I was in a bagpipe band who re-enacted for the French & Indian War. It was really all about the piping for me - I couldn't care less which uniform we wore (we had a second uniform for non-re-enacting events).
I liked that. For one thing, F&I re-enactors' uniforms were less standardized so stitch nazis don't have a good outlet, but the real draw is that F&I re-enactors, like SCA folks, make their own booze.
gvi