2033 DiPiazza Drive, Cottage Grove, Wisconsin 53527
Last September I loaded up three gas engines in my truck and
trailer and proceeded to a gas station to gas up. While I was
putting gas in, a man walked up to me wondering what I had in the
back of my truck. So I explained what they were and how one comes
about getting an engine- the long distance phone calls, the letters
and the sometimes many miles one puts on to get that
‘prize’ engine. I also told of the countless hours that go
into restoration.
Then I told him how we were heading up to the conservation club
get-together at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He asked me how much I got paid
for displaying the engines and I explained that we were not paid!
It was just that a good friend of ours, Russell Ginnow, (Tired Iron
Russ) asked us if we would bring up a couple engines and enjoy the
day!
The man at the gas station could not understand why someone
would go through all the trouble of buying, restoring and
displaying gas engines for nothing. I said that listening to that
old one-lunger giving that first pop after being restored and
meeting the people and friends at the shows was reward enough!
We’ve met people from North and South Dakota, Minnesota,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Connecticut, New York, Iowa, North Carolina and Florida. Just by
displaying at shows and meeting people from all the different
states, we discovered we have two things in common-gas engines and
fun. ‘Tired Iron Russ’ as the back of his shirt reads, was
one of these friends we met at a show.
One could enjoy his many hours of stories about engines. How he
worked on them when he was a kid or how he found a lead on an
engine or even how he would make parts from scratch to make that
engine run again-all proved interesting.
