P.O. Box 118 Clarcona, Florida 32710
Nobody ever gives away a tractor that runs, or so I always
thought. For several months I’d seen a tractor sitting behind a
yard where a ‘froze grove’ had been rooted out. Finally one
Sunday afternoon I drove down a side road outside Montverde,
Florida, and walked over to see what make and model it was Case
400. I walked back to the pickup, as I wasn’t interested. As I
started to drive away the owner came out of his house with a big
grin and waved me to stop. He asked ‘Have you got a home for
that thing?’ ‘Well, I might have’, I said, smelling him
out. ‘Well, just take it away, then.’ ‘Just like
that?’ ‘Just like that!!’
I thanked him and went my way, returned a few days later, turned
the gas valve and ‘pssht!” It was an LP gas model and
had gas in the tank yet! I ‘come-alonged’ it out to the
road and jumped the starter from my pickup. After much grinding, it
caught and ran like a Case should. After a 30 minute engine run, I
shut her down and went home.
Returning the next day I started the old gal and drove her home,
12 miles. I had no use for such a big tractor but I had fun running
it through ‘froze citrus groves’ til it ran out of gas.
Then I advertised it and sold it right off. I bought an Avery Model
V and am now restoring it.
Another gift was a Wilesco steam traction engine which my
son-in-law (a Lt. Commander in the Navy) gave me. It sure was a
great Christmas gift and sure gets attention.