Everybody Promenade Transcript
- [Announcer] We are all from Nemaha Iowa. We all have real jobs, believe it or not. We farm, we do wood working, I teach school. And then some days, we dress up a little strangely, get on our tractors and square dance. And that's what we're here to do for you tonight. And, might as well go now. Here we go - Iowa-style. Honor your partner. Do-si-do. Do-si-do. All right guys, this one-
- Out.
- How'd we get the idea to do it? Well, that's kind of a long story. This tractor here was brand new. It had just came up and I had a gas man that was quite a character in early tank gas and of course, he come out to film me one day and I was putting gas in the tractor and he said, well, he said I was the Spencer Fair. I said, "What'd you do, go to the girly show?" He said, "Hell no, I can't go to no girly show." But he said International had them new C Farmalls in a tent trying to put on a square dance. But he said, "Hell, that wasn't no square dance. They put a planter over here and a cultivator over there and they'd picked them up. They had to fast his," but he said, "I know eight guys who would put on a hell of a show if they would do that." And we were all square dancing at that time. So that's what started it.
- I saw this thing done back in the early fifties over here in Early, Iowa where we were gonna eat dinner and a group of guys did it. And I always remembered and I always thought it'd be neat to do.
- Now, they would drive to this guy's place over here by Early and it's, you know, those tractors the C's go about 15 mile an hour, the Hs go 20. Well it was, you know, four miles over there for dad and you know, you quit working or whatever take your tractor and go over there and dance for a little while and then you'd come home. You know, you had to bring it home so cause you needed it the next day.
- Ford tried it, but they didn't work right. It didn't go very far. These four, eight here seem to work the best. They really work the best.
- My name is John Culbertson. I was a human resources manager at this plant which is known as the Heart Parr Oliver White Tractor manufacturing plant in Charles City, Iowa. I worked at this location for nearly four decades and I am sitting very closely here to the office that I occupied. This plant was established in 1901 by Charles Hart and Charles Parr and the plant was in continuous operation until it was closed down in 1993. Back in 1959, they were thinking in terms of coming out with a new product and to promote that new product, the plant manager had the idea that if you combine pretty girls dressed nicely with a brand new type of tractor that that might be a winning combination for future sales.
- We went to New York, all expenses paid, we got to see what the Rockettes did and they did these formations. What they did, we learned to do on tractors.
- We practiced all the time different routines, you know, and zooming here and zooming there on our tractors.
- Oh, it was really exciting. You know, it was, we were treated like stars, you know.
- All the ladies who served as Oliverettes were housewives. Most of them had never been on tractors before, never had driven the tractor and most of them were the wives of businessmen in town, realtor business people, a dentist wife, engineer's wife. And so it went.
- We were never asked to do anything other than just show them how it worked and how a woman could even do it.
- We didn't do any, do any selling or anything. We just did our routines and so on. They were going to take us on the road somewhere, you know and do something, but it never got that far.
- Dealers were just flabbergasted that you take housewives and turn them into tractor square dancers. It was just unbelievable. I have great concerns about the future of farming as I knew it years ago as a family affair. The cost of farm tractors, some of those units will go well over a hundred thousand dollars and then you get into a combine which will go maybe 150,000. So you have, a tremendous cost involved in starting a farming operation.
- The Wedekings, guess have been here for probably about a hundred yards and and my mother's parents, they also were came from a century farm. They were the, the Schnells from down by Sac City and my great-grandfather was the first Wedeking that farmed around Nemaha here in Sac County. And he had, I think it was five sons and one of those would be the grandfather of Lance and one was my grandfather and I guess we're the only two, you know, the fourth generation that is that is still farming here in Nemaha, so. I knew, from when I was probably, as long as I can remember. That I wanted to farm. I didn't know if I would. I remember driving around and doing chores with my grandpa and my dad. It's just, all I knew and it's all I ever wanted to do. It's the way I was brought up, and it's always appealed to me.
- I'm a very small cattle feeder. We've got 143 head of heifers in the lot right now. They came in about a month ago just getting them up to full feed. And this is about a 1960s vintage farming, feeding operation. We still utilize the upright stage silo. I started farming with my uncle Gale and then later I started farming also my father's land when he retired. My uncle Gale is deceased now and my father has retired, so I farm approximately 1100 acres with my brother-in-law, Matt. And in addition to that there are two other farmers besides Matt and myself that go together and we plant and we harvest together. We've got one planter and we've got, and then we lease one combine. I tell people that we've kind of returned to the harvesting or the old thrashing ring of yester year.
- I started on the home place. My dad had 200 acres starting acquirement there. My dad said, "God, don't go into farming." But, I ended up with 400 acres. That's happy to end up with anything, I think, you know, if you start farming, you're lucky if you end up farming nowadays much less end up with land. That's an asset.
- I grew up on this farm and probably was on a tractor when I was six or seven years old and loved every minute of it. Farmed with my dad. Anything he told me to do, I did. But you know, I regret not asking him if I could take on the farm and my dad was, I don't know what you wanna say, advanced enough to know that girls could farm, but back then, girls didn't. It wasn't a thing for the women to do as much. I would gladly have farmed and I am farming now.
- [Phone Caller] I would set him up there and he can see what they're done.
- Okay, we'll do that and I'm gonna run down to John Deere here in a little bit and pick up some shovels. So if anybody needs anything down at Sac, let me know.
- [Phone Caller] Will do, thank you.
- Come us, come us, come us, come us, come us, come us, come us, come us. Come us, come us, come us.
- My granddad farmed this farm. My dad farmed it and my brother and I have farmed it and we just, it's something that's part of my life. It the only thing that I know, if I had to go out and get a another job, I don't know what I'd do or where I'd go.
- My grandfather came from Arlington, Nebraska area like in 1940 or 41 and settled on a farm two miles east and just north of Nemaha. He was in the Ayrshire Cattle business and also I think purebred, Hampshire hogs and also the beekeeping business. And then my dad took over the milking operation and we farmed out there until like 1984. Then we sold out, quit farming, basically a victim of the farm crisis of the eighties.
- The interest rates just got so sky high that anybody that had a lot of money borrowed just had a lot of trouble servicing that debt, and paying off that money that they had borrowed.
- They worked hard and they were good primaries and they had money borrowed cost them 18% and to borrow the money and that was devastating. And they bought cattle, fed them, put 400 pounds or 500 pounds of weight on them and barely got back the original cost to the animal. So they gave their corn away and gave away protein and their labor for nothing. Some of them lost their farms and quit farming, went bankrupt. It was tough.
- We were in the cattle feeding business and dad bought cattle, made pretty good money on this group but to replace them, they were costing like way too much. And in that same group of cattle, interest rates went from like 7% to 20% and corn, they had some kind of government program and corn went to like $3 and 50 cents a bushel. So we were losing like a hundred dollars ahead on every animal that we had on the farm. And you do that enough times we just couldn't milk enough cows to recover from the losses on the cattle feeding and decided it was just time to pull the plug and go on to something else.
- It was kinda strange the way it all started. It was gonna have our centennial and we went to a meeting one night, the whole community or a lot of people in the community went and they decided to go around the room. They said, "Well we need some entertainment for the centennial." I saw this thing done back in the early fifties and I always remember now I thought it'd be neat to do and I thought, well you know if there's ever a time this might be it. And so I brought that up and some people there, "Oh geez, that'd be great." Some of them says, "Ah, that'll never work." Yeah, Lee, Damon Mooney here with the formal promenade. My wife said you'd called earlier today. Right, right. Yeah, that's nice to have that. No, we'll be in there Saturday and I believe, what was the times on that? They wanted us in there was it like nine o'clock or something, 10 o'clock?
- Uncle Walt purchased this tractor new in 1947. This tractor was almost ready to go to the junkyard, I guess. It was in pretty tough shape and it had a belly mower on it and we used it for mowing around the farmstead, but it's got quite an easy life now. All it has to do is dance on weekends.
- Found this over by Fort Dodge an implement dealer that had it, it was, had a belly mower under it. Somebody had used it to mow the grove and it was in pretty good shape paint wise but I bought it and then we did restore it. It's a little unique. It's a '44, 1944 but the front wheels I learned after the fact are off a '39 H, 'cause they were different in the very beginning. People always ask, well how'd you decide if you're gonna wear a dress or wear the pants? And I was one of the first ones to go out and buy an H so I could, and not for any reason but that's what I found and that's what I wanted.
- Our wives bought some of our outfits for us, you know, and try to well of course naturally you want the biggest brassiere you can buy, you know, she goes, "Ask for about a 48 or 50, double D bra," you know, and she's about half that size so I says, "What are you gonna do with it?" You know?
- Everybody kind of knows what the next guy's gonna do and yeah, you're close together. It, that happens a lot, you know, in planning or harvesting and just general farm practices when you're working with somebody and there's multiple machines involved why that goes on a lot.
- Oh, look at this red spot I'm coming to. Oh, lucky I'm a precision farm 1A driver, I never would've made it through that wet spot without the driving skills from the Farmall Promenade.
- It's a great bunch of people and we get along real well. And Ben kind of the one that heads this thing up, I can call on any one of those guys and they'll help me out.
- They put up with us practicing right on Main Street which doesn't really affect the life of this town too much. It's not too busy but I think the rest of the town feels like, you know. "Wow. We're from Nemaha, home of the Farmall Promenade."
- [Driver In Red Shirt] I feel like going shopping now.
- Ah, that's better. Hair out of my eyes so I can see where I'm going.
- [Driver In Red Shirt] Honey, would you fix my collar please?
- There you go. Good. Looking good now. Yeah. Perfect.
- [Announcer] We're gonna go ahead and get started. We welcome you to Nemaha, Iowa. Those of you on the Mystery Tour, we're tickled you are here and we're gonna do square dancing for you. Line them up now. Is that he said?
♪ All laid balance so don't be slow ♪
♪ Tire your corner wait then go ♪
♪ Square that step, line it up right ♪
♪ Should be glad to be here tonight ♪
♪ Ladies to center now don't go far ♪
♪ Ladies to center ♪
Here are Nemaha's finest. That's a scary thought.
♪ Back right up and there you are ♪
♪ Your turn gents move right in ♪
♪ Back right up so we can begin ♪
Some of Nemaha's finest gentlemen. All decked out in their colors.
♪ Back right up don't give a hoot ♪
♪ Circle it up with a lickity scoot ♪
♪ Here we go hop to the great big green ♪
♪ Lickity cockadoodle tractors sing ♪
Legs together, Mrs. Garst.
♪ Getting you home we'll turn you around ♪
♪ Lest those tires barely make a sound ♪
♪ Turn you around ♪
♪ Barely make a sound ♪
♪ Send your lady to the right hand star ♪
♪ Gents you were up so don't go far ♪
♪ Right hand star ladies ♪
♪ When she's home she'll turn right back ♪
♪ Cheer up gents you're on the right track ♪
♪ Turn right back ♪ ♪ Now she's home at your gate ♪
♪ Swing her around don't be late ♪
♪ Gents move in to the right hand star ♪
♪ Half way around you don't go far ♪
♪ Now turn left give a spy ♪
♪ Pass your honor wave goodbye ♪
♪ Take that Mits girl me oh my ♪
♪ Pick her up on the fly ♪
♪ Promenade around the ring ♪
♪ While the roosters crow and the birdies sing ♪
♪ Drive around ♪
♪ Don't be slow ♪
♪ Give her a kiss off you go ♪
♪ Drop her off when she gets home ♪
♪ Gents to the star you're going to roam ♪
♪ Turn it back to the left hand star ♪
♪ Look at that there they are ♪
♪ Pass that second girl right on by ♪
♪ Pick up their oxen on the fly ♪
♪ Ace of diamonds jack of spades ♪
♪ Take this honey promenade ♪
♪ Hurry up boys don't be slow ♪
♪ Lots at the barnyard get it on low ♪
- On the last one you're going to ? Yup.
- Yup, still having fun. About a hundred shows now.
♪ It all started 50 years ago ♪
♪ When a bunch of corn farmers liked to do-si-do ♪
♪ Near a mighty small town named Nemaha ♪
♪ They knew their tractors and cutting straw ♪
♪ So they put them together and here's the draw ♪
♪ The Farmall Promenade ♪ ♪ Driving down an old dirt road ♪
♪ See the dust fly as those tractors roll ♪
♪ They're not going to plow no fields ♪
♪ They're on their way burn their wheels ♪
♪ To the square across from Hazel's cafe ♪
♪ Where you can get your own bill or you'll have to wait ♪
♪ Take a little trip to Iowa ♪
♪ To a one-church town with a lot of love ♪
♪ People come from miles to see our state ♪
♪ For the best tractor dancing in the U S A ♪
♪ The Farmall Promenade ♪
