Archived Past Pages:
2007 pages
2008 pages
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W
e e k l y F
e a t u r e P a g e
Links to archived past pages on lower left
The contents of the “Weekly Feature” page are provided
to you for your entertainment, amusement, and perhaps information.
Here you may find articles of interest, pictures, historical information
on the Club, or whatever shuffles to the top of the pile on our
desk. The only defined characteristic of this space is that we
will make every effort to change/replace it around the middle of
each week. Thank you for visiting, and please stop by again. Click
on any photo to see it larger in a separate window. |
Working Under Pressure
Even though our familiar acronym, “MMOGTA”, now seems almost
like a word to many, and our rather cumbersome complete name, “Mid
Michigan Old Gas Tractor Association” simply won’t fit
into any of the many paperwork forms that modern life requires, there
is a little history behind the tongue twister that some might not know.
It is just normal human nature, I guess, that causes
many of us to become territorial, possessive, and protective about
our stuff, our
locale, our family, even our hobbies. And so it was when our club started
out. Many know the story, but I’ll recap in brief for those who
don’t. The small group of local farmers around Oakley had an
interest in old farm tractors, machinery, and practices. They learned
of an existing organization an hour or so away that held an annual
show for such hobbyists, where threshing crews and sawyers put on demonstrations
for the public. An antique Huber tractor that had been in the family
of one of our founding members was loaded up and hauled to the Expo
for a planned weekend of fun. However, in a fateful turn of events,
when they arrived, with plans to belt the Huber up to the thresher
or sawmill or whatever, they were told to park it by the fence, since
that was a “Steam” show. Gas powered tractors were to be
parked by the fence and seen but not heard. Our founders, being the
independent sorts they were, wasted little time re-loading the Huber
and heading back to Oakley. “To hell with that bunch of snobs”,
they said, and started their own show a year or two later, where their
gas powered tractors were the “chosen ones”. Hence the
deliberate inclusion of the word “gas” in our corporate
title, which has never fit into a paperwork form or computer data window
since.
But that’s history now, we’re still here, growing by leaps
and bounds, and still doing business under the same nameplate, true
to our founder’s ideas. However, we do look at the world a little
more democratically than some other organizations, and we very well
recognize the validity of the many different preferences and interests
that abide beneath our ever-expanding tent. Yup, that’s right,
we CAN all just get along. If Steam is your thing, and there’s
pressure in your pipes, we’ve got a place for you too. All this
just as a way to let you know that, despite our very specific sounding
title, we do a little external combustin’ here, too. Quite a
little, both in the stationary form and the mobile form. Enjoy some
photos below of some of the many devices that, in today’s vernacular,
might be called “alternative fuel” machines.
(click individual photos to enlarge)
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