Old tractors excite enthusiasts

By MELANIE THOMAS
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW June 11, 2007 01:19 pm

— Engines were roaring and spectators were charmed Saturday as more than 50 antique tractors lined up on Lucas resident Stanley Jewell’s farm for the third annual Lucas Antique Tractor Show.
“We just have it to get together and meet people,” Jewell said, who owns more than 10 antique tractors.
Many tractors were more than half a century old and still running good as new.
The show started three years ago when Jewell said he became interested in antique tractors and found out his neighbors had the same interest.
“I just started buying some old ones and other people were doing it too,” Jewell said. “We just decided (to have a tractor show) and it’s growing every year.”
Lucas residents Joe and Edna Williams, who have been lifelong farmers, said they enjoy meeting with the community.
“It’s nice to socialize and see the people that you don’t see everyday,” Edna Williams said. “This way you get to see a lot of people.”
Last year’s show drew roughly 40 antique tractors.
“More and more people come each year,” Jewell said. “That’s what makes it good.”
As Jewell stood by his McCormick Farmall tractor, which he has owned for 44 years and invested roughly $5,000 into restoring, he said the tractors bring back memories of his childhood growing up on a farm.
“It gets in your blood,” Jewell said. “When you buy one, then you want two or three.”
Down the lane from Jewell sat Dillon Ausbrooks, 2, on the seat of his daddy’s pulling tractor — a 1948 red McCormick Farmall ‘H.’
“It was a bucket of rust when we got it,” said Amy Ausbrooks, Dillon’s mother. “It took two-and-a-half years to get it fixed, start to finish.”
Joey Ausbrooks said he went “crazy” when he restored the tractor he bought from his father. He said he has roughly $5,000 in receipts for the champion pulling tractor.
“I wouldn’t sell it for no amount of money,” said Joey Ausbrooks, who owns four antique tractors.
He was the 2004 champion in Southern Kentucky Antique Pullers, formerly known as Central Kentucky Antique Pullers. The tractor managed to pull 4,000 pounds.
“It’s cheap entertainment,” Joey Ausbrooks said.

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