Little Red

By Christine Tailer
HCP columnist
 
There is so much that I could say. My heart is so full, but let me begin with the fact that Little Red started up perfectly for all four days of tractor parading, and this is no small feat for a machine that is 80 years old. Her engine purred. I could not imagine being any happier.

Little Red is a special tractor. She is a 1945 McCormick-Deering 0-4 Orchard tractor, one of only 2,721 ever made. Quite likely those that have survived these many years, with all with their sheet metal intact, are few and far between. This is what makes Little Red unique.

She looks like something out of a mid-century science fiction movie. I can easily imagine her puttering across the moon in pursuit of a slow-moving alien robot. Her sides are completely covered with sheets of metal that swop up to enclose her wheels. 

My driver's station has a rounded perforated shield that I must look over to see where we are going, and her exhaust pipe runs close to her body, enclosed within the metal housing except where it exits through a low-lying vent. Rube Goldberg and Buckminster Fuller would have been proud of her design.

Now what, you might wonder, could ever be the purpose for such an odd-looking tractor? 

The answer lies in her name. She is an orchard tractor, designed to pass through an orchard's low-lying branches without damaging the trees. The fruit- laden limbs would easily part and pass over her swooping sheet metal as she passed by.

The branches, however, do take their toll. The sleek metal becomes battered and with time, is damaged beyond repair. At this point, the orchard growers likely removed the once- swooping metal and left it in the woods to rust away.

So yes, Little Red is special. I love to ride her around the grounds several times during the show’s day. People smile and wave as we pass by. We are on our own parade.

I asked a steam tractor owner how he referred to his beautiful old machine. He smiled and said that she was a lady. He then smiled even wider and told me that like all women, she can be rather temperamental. Greg had to agree. I had to laugh.

But there are so many reasons to smile at the antique machinery show. Folks gladly show and talk about their vintage treasures, ranging from the large coal fired traction engines that rumble across the ground, to the small kick start washing machine engines that once worked on back porches. And then there are the live steam model trains that Greg and three other fellows run on the permanent track we built on the hill under the shade trees. Children young and old gather to watch them run, for hours.

And need I say that I am known as the marble lady? There are many young'uns who run up to me, parents in tow, to say that they are so glad to see me again this year. Each child, a few of whom are many decades old, can choose five marbles out of my large bowl to bring back home. One child, now a teenager, let me know that over the years, she has filled a jar with the marbles I have given her. It so warms my heart to inspire young collectors.

I smile. My heart is so very full.

Christine Tailer is an attorney and former city dweller who moved several years ago, with her husband, Greg, to an off-grid farm in Ohio south-central Ohio. Visit them on the web at straightcreekvalleyfarm.com.