spokesNspin

Saturday was another one of those beautiful fall days.  I took a 50 mile bike ride that started on the W&OD and then took a loop through Waterford and back to Purcellville.  There was the Waterford fair which was busy but interesting looking.  I think I need to go back when I have time to check it out.

Maybe the highlight and thing that made my heart throb, if you discount the many hills, was this:

Sweet!

I love old tractors.  I am not sure if this is an old Johnny pop or not.   I am not much of an expert but I remember them.

I think our neighbor Bill S. had one.  Bill and his wife Hattie were part of the oldest generation in my farm community.  They, along with my grandparents and an assortment of great uncles/aunts and their peers occupied the back bench at church.  The women all wore pill box hats and white gloves. 

Other than my grandparents, most of these old people seemed rather scary to a little boy.

Bill had the reputation as a tight wad.  Maybe it would be better to say frugal.  My Dad told me that for entertainment on Saturday night Bill and Hattie would drive to town.  They would each get a nickel ice cream cone and sit in their car and watch the people walk by.  Bill played an important role in my life. 

My father started college at 16.  He dropped out after the first quarter to earn money.  He came out to the Winder area, (formerly known as Poverty Flats) and went to work for Bill.

I remember how Dad pointed out an old scales shack that was on Bill’s place. That was where I think my dad bunked while working there.  A scales shack was a small building that would be erected beside a set of scales where a person would stand and operate the scales when weighing trucks loaded with hay , grain and other farm products. So you can see it wouldn’t be very big. It had room for maybe two men to stand.  It was while working for Bill that Dad met my Mother. The rest is history and Dad never made it back to college. Anyway Bill had a Johnny Popper.

Why was it called a Johnny Popper?  These old John Deere tractors had a two cylinder engine.  The piston would fire and then essentially coast another 540 degrees.  I am not an engineer and don’t understand it all but this design gave the tractors a unique sound.  I tried to find a clip but couldn’t.  So let me try to explain.  Play along with me now.

Imagine you are making a tractor noise.  Let’s say “putt”.  Isn’t this fun?  Now say “putt” four times.  Putt, putt, putt ,putt.  Now put emphasis on the first putt and then kind of coast for the second three.  Do this out loud and you will get it.   PUTT!, putt , putt putt, PUTT!, putt, putt putt, PUTT!, putt , putt, putt, PUTT!, putt, putt putt. That was essentially the cycle for the Johnny pop.

As you can see,  I have been fascinated by tractors and mimicking tractor noises for a long time.

Next time you are on a bike ride and the hill seems steep or the way is long or you are just bored and want to irritate your companions, just start pretending you are a Johnny Pop.

PUTT! putt, putt, putt, PUTT!, putt, putt, putt…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 4:28 am and is filed under Bicycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.