by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Some farmers are sold on John Deere tractors; some swear by International Harvester Farmall tractors, and that kind of fierce favoritism has verged on fightin’ words at many shoot-the-breeze sessions in St. Stephen farmyards, not to mention elsewhere.
So it’s no wonder an upstart pretender has caused so much commotion at parades and, most recently, at the blessing-of-the-tractors event in St. Stephen on April 24. (See related story.)
At the blessing ceremony sat that brazen wannabe parked among all the other tractors. At first glance, it sure enough seemed to be a John Deere tractor. But, hey, wait a golldarned minute, that ain’t no John Deere! It’s a Farmall tractor gussied up in John Deere green – a blatant pretender. That Farmall, once upon a time so bright red, is now strutting its stuff in bright yellow-green – John Deere green. Shocking. Uncalled for. What the heck is this world coming to?
The tractor is owned by Vic Legatt, who enjoys with mischievous glee the double-takes it gets while in the public view. Part of Legatt’s wit is exemplified by the several “bullet holes” here and there on the tractor. They’re not real (they’re clever decals), but they look so real people actually run their fingers over the bullet “holes” only to discover they are flat. Mere decals. So far, thank goodness, no John Deere fanatics have shot bullets at the machine – as far as anyone knows.
And Marvin Feld of St. Joseph is mighty glad about that. Last summer, Feld drove the fake Farmall in the Bowlus Days Parade and received hoots, jeers and rude remarks all along the parade route. All in good fun, of course. Feld wondered if rotten tomatoes or eggs would come flying his way, but he made it to parade’s end, unscathed.
“Anybody can drive a red Farmall,” he told parade stragglers. “But it takes a lot of courage to drive one that’s green.”
At the tractor-blessing ceremony, the Rev. Robert Harren blessed the wannabe John Deere – not once but twice.
The Rev. Robert Harren of the St. Stephen Catholic Church prepares to sprinkle holy water on the Farmall-posing-as-a-John Deere tractor. It was one of many tractors blessed during a tractor-and-seed blessing ceremony in St. Stephen. The blessing is in honor of St. Isidore, a Spanish farmer from hundreds of years ago who is considered the Catholic patron saint of farming.
Vic Legatt and his son, Alex, both of St. Stephen, stand by their John Deere wannabe in St. Stephen shortly before Fr. Robert Harren blessed the machine – twice.
Bullet holes (fortunately fake ones) “adorn” both sides of a Farmall tractor painted John-Deere green. The machine was quite the conversation piece, if not a target, at the Catholic church’s tractor-blessing April 24 ceremony in St. Stephen.
