The Norwegian Lutheran Iowa Farm Boy

Long ago I mentioned I would stop to see the Norwegian Lutheran Iowa Farm Boy the next time I went to Birchwood, and this week I got the job done.  Dan Sorenson, author of Snapshots of an Iowa Farm Boy, was home when I knocked on his door.

Well, truth is it was his wife Shirley who answered the door, since Dan was at a doctor appointment, but they welcomed me back later when he had returned home, and like true Norwegians, didn't have the heart to kick me out once I got there.  My thought was to spend perhaps 15 or 20 minutes and then come back another time, but soon enough I had been there for an hour, thought it was probably time to take my leave, but was told in very friendly tones that there was nothing on their schedule so I should stay.

I did.  For another hour, finishing with a trip to the shed where Dan stores his six or so antique Case tractors.  "I have one more to get," he said, "and then I will have one each of every tractor my dad ever owned."

You'll notice the model tractor sitting on the desk in the photo (click to enlarge it), just above his right hand.  The one with the red wheels.  It's a model of a steel-wheeled tractor that Dan drove as a youngster, I believe the first he drove.  "When you took it on a gravel road, it was awfully rough to ride on," he said.

As our conversation turned to the several model tractors lining his office, some of them visible here, I mentioned the Allis-Chalmers WD-45 that we owned, and it was then that Dan knew I, too, was a farm boy, since I referenced the model number, as a true tractor man would do.  He almost jumped out of his chair to tell me that.

There is much to share with you from those two hours, but it's going to be another day.  After being gone for a week, I need to get back into the writing mood.  Who knows when...