He may come from the ‘Show Me’ state, but when it comes
to buyin’ ‘n swappin’ old gas engines he’s got
’em from every other state but Missouri. And, when it comes to
fixing up a gas engine trailer exhibit, to show at the summer
engine reunions, well he figures it’s like gettin’ married
— a feller wants folks to say, ‘Gee — he’s got the
‘purtiest, most beautifullest’ one on the grounds, ‘e
‘as.’
But, when it comes to showin’ off his trailer-load of old
gas engines, at such a shindig as Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor
Show, at Portland, Indiana — well, Don Skidmore sort of keeps his
Ruby in the background so folks can concentrate the better on the
uniqueness and orderliness of his outfit. He likes to hear the
exclamations of the onlookers about his unusual trailer and where
he got it — as well as the excellent restoration of his old gas
engines and the re-finishing thereof.
For, after all, all a wife like Ruby does is try to keep the Old
Man’s clothes clean while he’s busy a-cleaning his old oily
and rusty gas engines — so that when he shows ’em off to the
public everyone will say ‘My, what a handsome line o’
poppers ‘n pluggers!’ In answer to which, Don, thinking
they’re talkin’ about him, will sidle up and thrust out his
‘Mule State’ chest, while Ruby, hiding in the background
will chuckle, ‘I thought I was marryin’ a man — but I wind
up married to gas engines, instead.’
Yes — when a fellow starts an innocent little hobby — say he
falls in love with some lonely old gas engine that’s been
junked long ago. His wife takes pity on the old engine too, and
sides in with hubby that such a hobby wouldn’t be so bad after
all. But then, as the years go by, hubby’s hobby gets to be a
lobby demanding such priorities as special point jobs, expensive
replacement parts and/or luxurious trailers with special built-in
shock-absorbers so as not to jar their nuts ‘n bolts as they
ride from place to place to show off their grandeur and
splendor.
True, Wifey shares the hubby’s hobby to the extent that he
gets all the praises while basking in the limelight and she,
lurking in the shadows, knows darned well that she not only helped
to de-grease and paint the engines, but also laundered our
hero’s clothes.
But somebody — we said ‘Somebody’s gotta be out front
doing the unpleasant task of heaving heavy flywheels and oiling
value rods and linkage as well as explaining how his exhibit got
that-a-ways. And so Don Skidmore of Knob Noster — yes, we said,
‘Knob Noster,’ Missouri, came all the way to the big
Tri-State Show to do just that.
Spark Plug Don Skidmore of Knob Noster, Missouri, starts his
‘pride and joy’ the big 6 horse John Deere Gas Engine he
has restored. Note the specially designed Air Force trailer he
found in a junkyard and mounted them on. Note the stencil bearing
place and date of purchase. It has special wheel brakes and springs
and, by removing a pin, it can be parked curb-side. How’s that?
The whole outfit is as sharp as Don himself. Sorry, but Ruby
didn’t show up until after the pictures were taken. She was
sharp looking too.
We could say that Don Skidmore’s exhibit was unique in
several ways. First, his entire collection of old gas engines
consisted of only various models of the John Deere variety and
manufacture. Second, the entire trailer load is painted and
stenciled in the exact color combination of the originals. Third,
each engine bears a stencil recording the name of the town and
state as well as the date where it was bought or swapped. Fourth,
the trailer on which they are mounted is so unusual that it alone
fetches quite as much comments from onlookers as do the engines it
holds. And fifth — not many in ‘this yere Newnited States of
America’ can boast of coming from Knob Noster, Missouri. (Not
even that Missouri Mule, Harry Truman, who was as independent as
the Independence he came from.)
‘I live in Missouri,’ says Don Skidmore, ‘But I
bought and swapped for my engines in other states.’ (On
t’other side of the stateline road.)
There was the one-and-a-half horsepower John Deere bought at New
Virginia, Iowa, then the three horsepower John Deere traded for at
Coon Rapids, Iowa, both being of the ‘ingniter type’. Not
to be outdone, or we should say, outshone by the other two, was the
one-and-a-half horsepower ‘sparkplug’ type John Deere which
Don traded for at Monmouth, III., and the very rare ‘spark
plug’ type three horsepower J. D., traded for at Grafton,
Nebraska as well as the one-and-a-half horse ‘spark plug’
John Deere he got from the same fellow at the same place.
But the one that cops first place in Don Skidmore’s heart
(second only to Ruby), and occupies the most imposing position on
the Skidmore Engine Trailer is the big six horsepower John Deere
(igniter type), bought north of Bagley, Minnesota ‘back
when.’
Quite as eye-catching as the six beautifully-restored John Deere
Gas Engines which make up the Don Skidmore internal-combustion
exhibit, is the unusual design of the trailer which bears them from
one show to the next.
‘The six engines are mounted on a special trailer I found at
a junkyard,’ explains Skidmore in his humorous Missouri patter.
‘It’s an aircraft engine carrier used by the Air Force.
Much of it is of aluminum casting, making it very light.’
(though sturdy, too, Don.)
Lives in Missouri, but does his tradin’ cross the state line
– Spark Plug, Don Skidmore of Knob Noster, Missouri exhibits only
John Deere Gas engines at Tri-State Show, Portland, Indiana. He is
making an adjustment on one of his several Spark Plug type John
Deeres. Even people from Missouri look like other
‘critters’ from our state – and the John Deeres too.
‘It has special parking brakes and springs on each
wheel,’ points out Spark Plug Don. ‘And you can pull a pin
out and turn the casters to park sideways,’ says he.
‘I’m no machinist — just a farmer,’ chuckles Don,
tongue in cheek. But, by the looks of his John Deere Engines and
trailer we know he’s not the kind who refuses to patch his
leaking roof when it’s raining, and also in fair weather
because it doesn’t need it then. For Don Skidmore epitomizes
the kind of farmer-hobbyist who is going places with his engine
exhibit, his trailer and his wife, Ruby — all three.
Says wife, Ruby, ‘I don’t do much cleaning on his
engines, but I do help him get them started sometimes. And I do
clean his dirty clothes after he works on them.’
‘My wife likes gas engines. After all a man can’t do any
good unless his wife backs him,’ winks our Chief Plug for the
Month.
And it’s a good thing that Ruby Skidmore does like
hubby’s hobby well enough to hang in there. For Don Skidmore
has other gas engines and contraptions besides the six John Deeres
that adorn his special trailer.
For instance, ‘back home’, which is ‘Down Knob
Noster, Missouri-way’, the Skidmore man-and-wife gas engine
team have a two-horse Independent Sideshaft Engine, an Aermotor
Pump-Jack, a Fairmont Railroad Section Car Engine and a
one-and-a-half horsepower Gade Air-Cooled Engine.
Together, the Knob Noster Skidmores, Ruby and Don, attend a wide
variety of gas and steam shindigs in the bi-state area of Missouri
and Kansas.
‘We’ve exhibited at shows in Paris, Platte City and
Booneville, Missouri,’ says Don. ‘And also at McLouth,
Kansas. Then we decided to do something different and come to
Tri-State at Portland, Ind. It’s the biggest and best gas
engine show of all.’
Says Spark Plug, Don Skidmore, commenting on his hobby of
collecting out-dated and run-down old gas engines, ‘I like to
take something common and still in business and make them
attractive again. Like a Model-T Ford, for instance.’
Which explains why he likes to restore old gas engines with the
name of John Deere — a firm still very much in business, as is the
Ford Company which once made the fabulous and bone-rattling
Model-T.
And, also for the same reason — namely that womenfolk are still
being manufactured–our Spark Plug includes Ruby amongst his
collection of ‘first loves’.
Though I’ve sent engine records to such exotic-sounding
places as Crabtree Orchard, Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, Moscow, Idaho
and Milton-Freewater, Oregon and heard of Shake Rag, Buzzard’s
Glory, Teacup and Hogpath, this was my very first encounter with a
‘critter’ from Knob Noster who appeared for all the world
like most other two-legged creatures. Only this ‘critter’
had more John Deere Gas Engines than any other I’ve met.
And, as to Knob Noster, when I queried our Spark Plugger about
the length, breadth and population thereof he replied,
‘Don’t wink when you’re going through or you won’t
know you did.’ But it is a town, if only of cross-roads
proportions and it is peopled with human bi-peds not too different
from those that populate the rest of our land.
In fact, our Spark Plug, Don Skidmore, was a most pleasant
fellow to meet and chat with. And his wife, Ruby, was fully as
charming and bright looking as any one of the John Deeres that
hubby drools over. And Don Skidmore’s humorous Missouri patter
could make even a guy with a stuck engine piston forget his
troubles and laugh.
So it is to Don and Ruby Skidmore, for putting forth so much
effort and elbow grease in keeping the fine line of John Deere
‘internal combusters’ out of the junk pile and exhibiting
them as reminders of America’s great past — that we honor you
both with a seat in our Spark Plug Hall of Fame. For having
preserved a segment of our eminent forebears whose ingenuity and
industry made America great, you have helped to erase the
abomination of a so-called ‘Generation Gap’. And, in doing
so, enriched our rising generation in a manner otherwise
impossible.
And, the least that we can do in a column like this, is to
report what you have done. And thank you for having done it.
As our late and beloved ‘Uncle Elmer’ would say it —
‘You have blessed mankind — and we love you for it. –
A-MEN!’
