Remembering when you could count on your John Deere to last 75 years

Yes, as a matter of fact, I'm warming up to deliver yet another rant about what a tragedy it is, or perhaps even an outright crime, and a quite despicable one at that, that nobody knows any more how to build stuff to last.

Regular readers will be well acquainted with my observation (not that it's in any way original to me, as I'm sure several billion folks around the world are acutely aware of the phenomenon by now) that whereas we once valorized concepts such as reliability and quality, those are archaic values today, deader than God Himself.

No! In the modern era, we celebrate the genius who figured out how to ensure that any fridgestovewasherdryerrandomcountertopappliance expired within weeks, or ideally hours, after its warranty! That's why that lonely Maytag repairman, who single-handedly covered the lower 48 from the 50s to the Reagan era, has been replaced by hundreds of Mexicans. In every town.

And they're on the go 24/7!

I share this only to provide context re the brand mentioned in the title. It was in the early '70s that my father purchased a used John Deere 450 crawler-loader. It was at least twenty years old at the time. Dear Dad has gone to the happy woodlot in the sky, but the by-now 80 yr old JD 450 is still chugging through the family woodlot on the home acreage.

Fast forward from the 80 year-old Deere to me dropping in on the neighbours at the weekend. They are hard-core Deere guys, owning no less than eight of them, ranging from '30s vintage to pretty close to state-of-the-art. They should know from John Deeres, and in their estimation every innovation for the last generation has been a step backwards. They are especially pissed about how newer models restrict their ability to repair their own machinery. Pretty much every old-school farmer thinks that an outrage, whereas the corporate guys figure it's just the way things have to work.

I had some farm matters to discuss, and when I pulled up, the father-son team happened to be tinkering with a '62 Massey Ferguson. The father explained that his father had bought in new in '62. I half-jokingly enquired if they were still claiming depreciation on it 64 years on. The no-joke answer was yes! Best tractor on the farm!

Well, guess it depends how you define best. They might love their wee Massey, but it's the Deere's doing all the work. That's why I've got my eye on this beauty. She's the little brother to the 450 my father had.  She's only fifty years old - barely broken in!

              Should clear the snow out the drive right smartly!