Just like every family gathering I attend, I had several contentious and/or troubling conversations while at my family's holiday gathering this past weekend. Most of these I can’t talk about here, but there were two that caused me to do some research afterward. These two conversations seem safe enough, so I’ll blog about them.
The first one was with my Dad. I told him that I had seen a John Deere 420 tractor sell a couple weeks ago at an estate auction. My Dad claimed there was no such tractor ever made. I knew his claim to be false but I didn't argue. I got online the following day and verified my belief.
My Dad has been a farmer since WWII, and for a time he collected John Deere 2 cylinder tractors. In fact, he still has between 10 and 20 antique John Deere tractors sitting in his barn which he never touches. It is kind of sad to see these old tractors sit and rot, but Dad has lost the interest to work on them. Brother #3 has a couple antique John Deere tractors too. If I had the storage space, I wouldn't mind having one, but that isn't going to happen.
The John Deere 420 was the second smallest of the 2 cylinder 20 series tractors John Deere made from 1956 to 1958, with the smallest being the 320 and the largest being the 820. Within this 20 series, Dad still has two 520s and a 620, and my brother has a 720.
Way back when I was five, I learned to drive a tractor on a John Deere 520.
It was kind of sad to hear my Dad say John Deere never made a 420 tractor. He was an expert on all things John Deere, any farm equipment, anything else farm related, any kind of tree, weed, or plant. I expect him to not remember mundane things, like if he paid the electric bill or if Cousin Dave still has his old truck, but when he doesn't remember something that is important to him, that troubles me.
Because he doesn't hear well, I am hoping that he just didn't hear me correctly or he misunderstood what I was talking about.
The second conversation was with brother #3. Brother #3's youngest daughter was saying something about Mr. B, who is her Social Studies teacher in high school. I asked brother #3 if this was the same Mr. B who was a teacher back when we where in school. He said yes.
I was surprised to learn that Mr. B was still teaching at our old school, not because he is super-old, which he really isn't, but because he has been there for so long. He has been there for over thirty years and I figured he would have retired by now.
I recalled that Mr. B, who also attended our high school, would brag about being a member of the 1969 championship baseball team. Brother #3 claimed that Mr. B was too young for that, since he thought Mr. B had started teaching around 1980. He reasoned that subtracting 4 to 6 years for college, Mr. B would have graduated from high school no earlier than 1974, a full five years after 1969, and therefore he’d be too young to have been on that year's championship team.
Brother #3 believes he has total recall of all events real and imaginary. Although he is often wrong, to argue with him would be futile, so I dropped the subject.
Well, I looked online Sunday and found that Mr. B graduated in 1970, meaning he was a junior when he was on the 1969 championship team. Take that Brother #3! You are wrong... again! I just sent him an email to that effect. We'll see if he has a response.
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