Vintage tractors will be put to the test during festival
Written by admin on July 25, 2009 – 12:29 am -By John Weiss, Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
PLAINVIEW -- Oh boy, do those guys in the old tractors know how to have a good time.
To practice for the Aug. 15 Tractor Games at Plainview's Corn on the Cob Days, they competed to see who could push a barrel, which was partially filled with water, down Third Avenue Southwest in Plainview. They also competed to see who could drive the slowest and who could maneuver a chain into a square on the pavement. All the while, others laughed, encouraged and laughed some more.
It's all because of a love of those old tractors.
Tractor Games is new to the festival because the Greenwood Prairie Classic Iron Club is new to the area. It formed because those young and old just love those old tractors.
"This is a normal meeting night, as normal as this bunch gets," said Joel Eggenberger of the Plainview Lions who are sponsoring the festival.
The club is dedicated to preserving old tractors, farm equipment, engines, law and garden equipment and construction equipment that helped build America. While it's open to anyone, its members tend to be a bit older. But then, Tom Duden, club president, is 23.
The club has 39 paid members, he said. Leo Sagissor of Lake City came up with the idea and spread the word that there was going to be a meeting to decide if they should form a club, Duden said. The first meeting was in January and temperatures were well below zero, Duden said. Twenty-three people showed up. "That really surprised me," he said.
Duden said he grew up in a town but worked on a farm when he was younger. He was too young to drive a car in town but he could drive a tractor on the farm.
When they practiced the games that will be part of the festival, MacKenzie Schroeder, 8, watched. "Cool," she said of the tractors and antics. "They're cool. I've never seen a tractor push a barrel before."
Besides cool, she also thinks the men are crazy "a little bit." And then she thought about it and said "a lot of bit" crazy. "They're having too much fun," she said.
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