1682 230th Avenue, Osceola, Iowa 50213
The year 1966, my mother had just died, and Uncle Paul picked me
up in southeastern Missouri to live with him. It was too late in
the year for the Midwest Old Threshers Reunion. He told me all
about the show, and I went for the first time in 1967 and I have
only missed four years since.
The old engine bug got me, and I started out with a Clinton and
a Briggs & Stratton. Uncle Paul showed me how to work on these
small engines. We also made a go-cart out of a reel type mower with
a Briggs motor on it.
My wife and I got married in 1982 and she called my engines and
tractors junk, but she knew it was a lost cause when the rusty iron
bug gets you.
In 1985 our daughter Krysta was born, and she has been around
gas engines and tractors all of her life as you can see in the one
picture of her on the VAC Case. She has a cast iron Briggs &
Stratton, and she has her eye on one of my old chain saws and the
VAC.
Between Krysta, Uncle Paul and me, we have 32 chain saws from
the 1940s and 1950s, 25 to 30 gas motors, six garden tractors and
four tractors. There are several brands of saws we own, Clinton,
Mercury, Wright, Lombard, Strunck and McCulloch. The motors are
Briggs & Stratton, Clinton, Reo, Fairbanks-Morse, Wisconsin,
and Waterloo Boy. The garden tractors are Planet Jr., David
Bradley, Montgomery Ward and Bolens. The tractors are 1949 DC Case,
1950 SC Case with wide front, 1950 VAC Case and 1937 Twin City
MTA.
Uncle Paul and I bought the Twin City together to restore. We
lost Uncle Paul before he ever got to do anything to it, so Krysta
and I are going to restore the Twin City and show it with the
motors and saws. I finally showed my saws at Midwest Old
Thresher’s Reunion, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, in 1996. We are
planning to show at Hawkeye Acres, Waukee, Iowa, in 1997. We miss
Uncle Paul. I hope to see several GEM subscribers at the shows this
year.
