2910 Maple Road, Manisted, Michigan 49660-9628
I grew up around everything that is being collected today. When
I was small, as kids do, I would play on the tractors and try to
figure out how to start them. It’s a good thing I could not
start them, as the barn and other buildings may have ended up with
more than one doorway. As I grew older and around my dad, I watched
and helped to do all kinds of repairs. I would hold things in place
while he would install the bolts.
I learned how to do things, and as I grew old enough to go to
work I tried factory work. That was not for me, so I went full-time
into repair work I liked. My first major job was in the Korean War,
in charge of maintenance and repair on self-propelled. We would
replace engines, etc. After I was discharged I tried factory work
again. I decided it was not for me, so I got a job working for a
truck dealership. I retired after 40 years doing all kinds of
repairs. I did everything but body work and automatic
transmissions. I left that for someone else. I worked on cars,
trucks, buses and semitrailers during my years.
Now about the generations. I have collected, traded and sold
some stuff over the past 40 years. I have two sons in old iron; two
grandsons, two granddaughters, daughters-in-law, and now a
great-granddaughter who will be in it. She was one year old
December 22, 1998. She has already been to a couple of engine
shows, and she likes riding on our lap in a parade. I also have a
couple of sisters and a brother-in-law in old iron.
Back in September 1998 I donated myself a pint of blood as I was
having my right knee replaced. They checked the iron content and
said I had plenty of iron in the blood, so I did not have to take
any iron pills. (I wonder why.) I said maybe they could take some
iron out of my blood and make engine parts. They sorta look at you
funny, when you tell them that!
When we go to my son’s place and get the riding garden
tractor out, great-granddaughter is ready to go. She will grab the
steering wheel and smile, so I am sure she will want one of her own
when she gets older.
I think it is good for the younger ones to have something to
play with and work on. The older grandson took his all apart,
cleaned and painted it and put it back together. He is working on
another one and has the engine running now.
Now you know the story about our collecting. How is that for a
family of old iron collectors?