January Sketchbook - "The Last Row"
Happy 2017, friends. Got another tractor for you here, a second Allis-Chalmers. This one is an "A" series, I think, from some time in the late 1940's. She's a bit worse for wear, and looks to have been left where she gave out. Her front wheels are flat and sit half-buried, and her back end seems to lean to the left. What brought her down is a mystery, but it's apparent she's hoed her last row, as the saying goes. This is another one of the tractors that belonged to my grandfather, although his was in a bit better shape than this. I always wondered as a kid about that spindly front wheel. It seemed to me to always be on the verge of bending or breaking off. And how did it turn? I used to spend so much time thinking about it I'd get hollered at for not paying attention. You can't be wandering around daydreaming around a machine like this, grandma would say. It was easy to get hurt, cause grandpa couldn't always see you. I remember the time my ...