When Tim and I were kids, we had many interesting experiences with our farm tractors (See previous story). This is yet another experience with an old tractor our Uncle Ned purchased. It was a VERY OLD faded red International “WK-40” and from our “kid perspective” was H U G E! From my research prior to writing this story, I found that this particular tractor was built from 1935 to 1940. Since it was so old when we bought it in the early 1960’s, we nicknamed it “The B.C.”! I’ve searched all of my dust covered cardboard box “archives,” and unfortunately cannot find any pics of it! (I’ll check with Tim and if he can find one, I’ll post it here). I remember seeing at least one old black and white pic years ago. It could run on either gasoline or kerosene and had a long lever that swung parallel to the instrument panel. Since we planned on always running it on gasoline, I remember the guy who sold it to us taking his pocketknife and scratching “GAS” in the faded instrument panel paint where the lever rested on that setting. It was there for the many years we owned it. One very important modification made sometime prior to our purchase was the installation of rubber tires as opposed to the steel wheels (as seen in the background pic). Shortly after buying this tractor, Ned bought an old 5-bottom plow and the first year we used this rig to plow, we were the center of attention of all the surrounding family farmers! Practically everyone at that time used either a 2 or 3 bottom plow due to the lower horse powered tractors. Since at that time we were farming about 500 acres, additional timesaving equipment was a real “Ace in the hole.” Tim and I were relegated to using either one of the “H’s” with a 2-bottom plow, or the “Super M” with a 3-bottom plow. Uncle Ned operated “THE B.C.” at first. Eventually Tim and I were deemed ready for the Herculean responsibility to “Plow with THE B.C.” Everything on it was so big, that we had to sit sideways on the metal wheel fender to see where we were going! There was no electric starter on this beast, and it took way to much effort to crank start it. Besides, Tim and I didn’t have enough “beef” to even hardly budge the engine. The method of getting “THE B.C.” started was to tow it with another tractor. Sometimes this took quite a distance if it was cold out, and we would  tow it up RT 113 and turn around at Heckleman’s Sohio Station. Some days we would make more than one round till the huge engine finally decided to come to life! I can’t imagine trying to start that thing with just the crank, but maybe farmers were “Beefier” in “The Good Ole Days”! (Or more likely, THEY tow-started it too or parked on LONG hills”)! Hey, does ANYONE really think basic human nature was any different THEN? I think not! However, if any farmer could start “THE B.C.” with the crank on a cold day, I for one would call him “SIR”! One time we got it stuck in the mud and despite using 2 tractors, it still took the addition of Heckleman’s big wrecker to finally pull it out! That beast weighed A LOT! I imagine that when we finally took it to the junkyard, that they melted it down and built a new Navy Destroyer! (Probably the USS “B.C.”)!