On these tractor rides you are seeing a lot of red tractors, a huge array of green ones, along with orange, blue and grey ones, as well as some you just don't see that often. Old Iron, some people call them. Ageless is another term you hear. They are classics, some might say.

Most of these machines here look different now than when they were made. Many of them look better than when they rolled off the assembly line five decades ago at a place like Waterloo, Rock Island, Charles City or Racine. With sandblasting, glossy paints and superbly remanufactured parts, these tractors truly are "standing tall."

Then there are some that just have not yet been to the paint shed. They are wearing their "work clothes," and there is good reason for that. Some of these old machines truly do get worked yet today. That they are still so functional is a testament to the magnificent engineering that went into these machines all those years ago.

And some might suggest that the finish on that steel is nothing to get too worked up about anyway. While a mirror reflection in that paint sure is something to be proud of, we might hasten to point out that these tractors through their lives have all had their share of dirt and mud and manure…of chaff and weed pollen…of grease smudges and oil puddles and gasoline spills…and of scratches and fading. And to us real tractor fans, as the true character of that tractor still comes through, even that well-worn appearance looks remarkable.

It seems to us that this avocation of collecting, restoring and parading old tractors is different than the old car craze. For many of the tractor boys and girls there is a very strong family tie with the tractor of their affections. It may have been Dad's or Grandpa’s. It may have been just like the one Uncle Frank had. It could be the very same tractor we started farming with many, many tractors ago. But because it was in the family, the connection, it appears, is stronger than with an old car.

Sitting on that seat brings back a flood of family memories. There are recollections of the changing seasons…births and deaths…first dates and graduations…plowing, planting, cultivating, spraying, mowing and harvesting….sweating and freezing…and dreaming and scheming.

As young people out on the farm, we contemplated the vast world of experiences ahead of us, with no clue of what was really yet to come and with no idea that decades later those days and those experiences with these tractors would come to mean so much.