My friend Ralph Rockwell is a mechanic in Wolcott, Vermont and he runs a tow truck business. He's been rebuilding old vehicles since he was 15. Now he's 72 and he restores old tractors. I don't know anything about tractors, but I love listening to Ralph talk about them. Each story contains the tractor's history as far back as he can go. This begat this begat that. It's almost Biblical. This summer I sat and talked with Ralph in his shop next to a 1953 Ford Jubilee. Then I tagged along to a tractor pull.

Here’s a story about it.