Tractor Love

By Marise Redmann

(Originally published in 2023 Door County Go! Guide)

The love starts early. When growing up on a farm, the tractor is like another family member, with designated brands in specific colors. The orange Allis Chalmers, the red Farmall, gray Ford, sand and red Case, and green John Deere. “Tractors were as common as automobiles!” Suzi Hass, photographer and hay farmer, said about her first tractor experience on a dairy farm. The brand is personal to the upbringing. For me, I loved our Ford because it was smaller and looked steady, modest, and loyal.

The first time I got my tractor driving instruction, having graduated from the riding lawnmower, I was 10. I still remember it to this day. My Pop explained the shift, throttle, clutch and brake. I was in a state of heady frenzy for it was my chance to prove myself a valuable member of the orcharding crew. Everything started out okay, but as I did circles in the yard, with Pop shouting directions at me, I couldn’t remember how to stop the thing! Needless to say, he rescued me… after I ran over his toes.

Suzi Hass reminded me how Door County is the “land of the Escarpment, where springtime is the annual stone harvest.”

“When you live on a farm, if you can keep the tractor in a straight line while other workers put stones on a flatbed trailer behind, you’re hired!” Suzi recalled. “Someone older would jump on and turn at the end of the field! I did my own turning when my legs got long enough to reach the clutch pedal.”

Having youth help on the farm has been important since agriculture began, though the laws have changed with education and the age limits allowing youth to drive machinery. Those who are licensed can celebrate “drive your tractor to school day” at some of our local schools, sponsored by the FFA.

Farmers feel so strongly about their vehicle and craft that they will compete, show off, and parade for events in Door County like the tractor pull at the Thresheree, Ellison Bay Antique Tractor Show, Door County Fair, and many parades. Seeing a dozen shiny green and yellow John Deere tractors of all eras proudly lined up for show is a treat for the eye. So much love and attention go into the meticulous restoration of an antique tractor.

My brother, Johnny Redmann, caught the fever of collecting and restoring John Deere tractors, and even started farming just so he could use all six of them. When he passed away, the previous owner of the tractors, Peter Nehlsen from Washington Island, bought most of them back. I still have the ‘A’ model and another Deere my brother purchased from Jack Hagen, an Islander, which sits in my yard as art sculpture.

Julian Hagen, Jack’s son, musician, and Islander, carries on the love of tractors with his song Tractor Seat Woman, about a farming man who feels the loneliness of farm life and dreams up the kind of woman that would satisfy his soul. It includes her fitting onto his tractor seat! An excerpt from the song:

So I came up a wish list of all I hoped she’d be

Laugh at my jokes and my crazy family

Believe in a loving Jesus, make my heart skip a beat

But more than anything, she’d fit my tractor seat

I brought that tractor seat wherever I would be

I thought that maybe someday the right girl would sit for me

When it finally happened, she fit that seat so fine

Like Cinderella’s slipper, that’s how I know she’s mine

“My father was an “Allis” man,” Suzi said. “We had Allis-Chalmers tractors at the farm where I was born but I married an “orchard guy” and I clearly remember when we had a few good cherry crop years and bought 2 new Ford tractors. The orchard has long been sold but the two tractors I own now came from that life. I have a 4600 Ford Diesel that we used to haul bins of cherries and apples. My other tractor is a much older 8N Ford that had nets for the cherry shaker mounted on it.”

When Suzi’s father passed away, in his honor she drove the big Allis on the Freddy Kodanko ride. The ride started 20 years ago to celebrate the life of Freddy K, and anyone else you bring in your heart, on a tractor ride around the county. Freddie K was known as the Door County Polka King, a dancer, potato farmer, and character. As the story goes, he lost his driver’s license and took to the tractor for transportation, which was somewhat legal back then. I remember seeing Freddy all over the county, sharing polka music from his record player while driving the tractor, always bringing spirit and joy wherever the music reached. Tourists may have recognized him in the parades running down the Highways, dressed in a blue cape and crown.

“The tractor ride is always a great time, with familiar faces and memories made,” Suzi recalls. “Don’t forget your sunscreen and remember to hydrate! Without fail, someone’s tractor has problems, and the knowledgeable ones gather and figure it out.”

What I love is taking my tractor out to mow the trails — no one can reach me, I can’t hear or feel my phone, I’m with my loyal pal and follow her little grey nose down the paths, bending over to avoid the trees whipping at my face, stopping to rescue a stalk of asparagus in the pathway, observing the deer lift their heads and then go back to eating, alarming the two resident sand hill cranes who sound their displeasure, outrun the mosquitos, look up into the clear blue sky and feel like everything is in order.