My First Tractor: Stories of Farmers and Their First Love

Driving a tractor was a rite of passage for every farmboy and girl. Anyone who grew up on a farm has nostalgic—or not so happy!—stories about his or her first tractor: the Farmall that replaced the draft horses, the John Deere “Poppin’ Johnny” that ran forever, and the cursed tractor that would never start. The long hours spent in the metal tractor seat, come rain, snow, or the glaring sun, were formative in a farmer’s life.

Here are 25 stories from notable rural authors relating fond or not-so-fond memories of their first tractors, including Michael Perry, Bob Artley, Roger Welsch, Bob Feller, Ben Logan, Gwen Petersen, Ralph W. Sanders, Robert N. Pripps, Patricia Penton Leimbach, Randy Leffingwell, Lee Klancher, Don Macmillan, Scott Garvey, John Dietz, and more.

Jerry Apps is a professor emeritus of agriculture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.