Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: We’re an antique tractor and engine club almost into our fourth year. I’ve worked on cars and trucks when I was a younger feller. My grandparents farmed a dairy farm in New York, I spent a summer with them when I was ten. My grandfather farmed with an Allis-Chalmers tractor, so I never really forgot that. And as time went on and we were able to do this, we inherited a family tractor and it took off from there.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: Most of the equipment, especially the farm tractors, were designed so that a farmer could work on it himself. He wasn’t going to run into the dealership. It wasn’t going to happen. If you couldn’t fix it in the field, you were probably in trouble.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: We have folks whether their little bitty guys or gentlemen in their eighties, especially the older folks. They either had one or dad had one, and of course they remember the sights, the sounds, the smells. They had the big dinner when they thrashed back when farms were eight acres and all the neighbors helped each other.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: When this John Deere starts, you’ll have people from a hundred yards coming because they’ve heard that sound before, they want to see what it is. Or, they heard it on dad’s farm, grampa’s farm. The sound is a lot of it, but even the smell of the corn sometimes the older fellers will come up and say “boy I haven’t seen this or haven’t smelled this for forty years”.

Perry Smith, Alleman: Generations. They loved to bring their kids and talk about how grandpa did corn shelling every day and grandma use to grind corn for the chickens. It brings back a lot of good memories.

Perry Smith, Alleman: We started collecting this stuff about twenty years ago. Ended up the kids having nothing to do while we were showing the engines, so we started buying grinders and shellers and just incorporated it into this event that we have here at the state fair this year.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: Especially in the times we have now, a lot of people wish things were like they use to be.

John Hess, Des Moines: They want to know how old it is. What does it run on. All that kind of stuff.

Don Pettey, Altoona: Every year you get to talk to somebody from some foreign country, at least one if not more. And every state, I swear every state is here.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: That’s a 1919 Rumely. We just had some engine work done on it. Now it starts as easy as your car. It will backfire every once in awhile and everyone gets about a foot taller for a second.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: There isn’t anything up here that is OSHA approved. It’s hot. It’s spinning. It’s sharp, or throws things.

Jack Smith, Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association, Inc.: This is Iowa history. There is a lot things on the fairgrounds. Best fair on the planet, bar none. But when get right down to the nuts and bolts of antiques. This is what grandpa used. This is the place to see that.