By Angie Wotton
Contributed photoAt 8 miles an hour, traveling 40 miles would take roughly five hours. Not a speed most people would choose but last Sunday, at least 21 people signed up to do just that for what has become the Northern Maine Antique Tractor Club’s annual Tractor Trek fundraiser.
The ride is an opportunity to get together with like-minded enthusiasts and support such worthy organizations as Hospice of Aroostook and Aroostook House of Comfort. Choosing different areas of Aroostook County each year, this year the club arrived in Littleton and gathered at the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum for their starting point.
Club president Tom Berube of Washburn, driving a 1949 John Deere, said that the group’s mission is to continue to honor the heritage of antique equipment and the way land was farmed in the early 1900’s. He also said that club members just plain ol’ loved old equipment. The annual Tractor Trek allows them to do what they love and raise some money for a good cause.
Driving in line with the antique tractors was a 1946 farm truck owned by Richard Rand of Presque Isle. When I asked Richard the year of his truck he said, “I’m a ’41 and my truck is a ’46.” On the flat bed was a stand-up memory board with the names of loved ones listed. As part of the fundraiser, names were added with a donation of $25.
Another truck bringing up the rear of the line of antique tractors was a modern-day one equipped with items to assist with any breakdowns along the way.
The Trek took the drivers up the road and along the Front Ridge Road, a stop at the tourist information booth in Houlton, and then traveled on to Hodgdon where they stopped for a barbecue lunch. The procession continued on up the Foxcroft Road, eventually making their way back to the museum in Littleton with only two flat tires and a brief downpour hampering the day.
When I asked Tom and club member Meredith Folsom of Monticello if there was ever any tractor make competition, both rolled their eyes simultaneously and said, “All the time.” Tom said, “I don’t care if I’m unloading the tractor, loading the tractor, pulling or driving down the road, I’m always getting comments about my John Deere.”
All in good fun of course. Meredith, who drives a Farmall, took the opportunity to ask Tom if he had heard the saying that while the John Deeres were hiding in the grass and dandelions the red ones were doing all the work. Tom looked at me as if to say, “See what I mean?”
Anyone interested in donating to the Hospice organizations through the Northern Maine Antique Tractor Club’s Tractor Trek may do so by making a check out to NMATC and mailing it to NMATC, c/o Sandra Bartley, PO Box 910, Presque Isle, ME 04769. If you are an antique tractor enthusiast and are interested in becoming a club member, contact Meredith Folsom at 538-9543 for more information.
Angie Wotton loves her work as district manager for the Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District. She also raises pastured pork and vegetables with her husband on their small West Berry Farm in Hammond. She can be reached 532-9407 or via email at angela.wotton@me.nacdnet.net
