The farm tractor is a symbol of an era come and gone in Windham’s history.
Where once hundreds of farms spanned acres of land dotted with dairy cows, horses and chickens, now only a handful of working farms remain, replaced by a sprawl of suburban houses.
But Windham resident Richard Larrivee and the Maine Antique Tractor Club aim to keep the spirit of the tractor alive: the spirit of hard work and what it means to make an honest living off the land.
This Saturday, the club is hosting an open antique tractor show at Nappa Auto Parts in North Windham from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Larrivee is expecting more than 20 tractors of different makes and models – Ford, Case, International, John Deere and others – dating back to the 1920s.
“We’ve got a great bunch of people who are into this club,” Larrivee said. “These guys take a lot of pride in their tractors.”
Rain or shine, tractor owners will be outside showing off the mechanical workhorses and answering questions for those who stop by.
This is more of a show-and-tell event compared with the festivals the club participates in across the state. Each summer, the Maine Antique Tractor Club showcases the tractors at county fairs and as part of town parades.
Since 1995, the club steadily has grown from a dozen members to now more than 500 members statewide.
Standing in a garage filled with old tractors – the former workshop for his tractor repair and refurbishing business – Larrivee shows off his old 1960 green Oliver tractor and talks with friend Kenneth Meserve of Windham who will have the oldest tractor in the show.
Meserve grew up working on the family dairy farm in Saco and today he still owns his father’s old International tractor purchased in 1926.
On the family farm, Meserve remembers working from sunrise to sunset and using the tractor to perform daily chores.
“Some nights we’d hay until 1 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
Meserve and Larrivee both lament how the “hayday” of farming in Windham has come and gone.
No more homegrown fruit and vegetable in the supermarkets, Larrivee said, or door-to-door milkmen, a prolific trade during World War II.
“This used to be all country and now it’s the suburbs,” Larrivee said.
The farming industry once provided many local children with steady jobs and helped the region through the Great Depression.
“A farm that was on the ball during the Depression did well because there was plenty of help,” Meserve said.
These antique shows and fairs are a fun way to reintroduce kids to farming culture, Larrivee says.
At an upcoming Farmington fair in June, there are many games and pulling competitions where contestants see how much their tractor can haul. The club also holds safety-training courses that teach children how to ride a tractor, a prerequisite for hopping on board.
“One of our game plans is to get as many kids interested as we can because we won’t be around for much longer,” Larrivee said.
And through these antique tractor shows and fairs, Larrivee and the Maine Antique Tractor Club hope to keep the spirit of Maine’s farming tradition alive and pass on their love of tractors to future generations.
Kenneth Meserve and Richard Larrivee stand next to a 1960s Oliver tractor. Larrivee and Meserve are showcasing their tractors in an antique tractor show on Saturday in North Windham.Send questions/comments to the editors.
