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Honoring farm heritage
By
TOM KANE
CALLICOON — The tractors kept
coming and coming last Sunday, June 9, traveling up
Main Street, around Dorrer Drive and back again on
Main Street.
The enthusiastic crowd cheered and
clapped as each machine passed by.
What is becoming an honored tradition,
the Callicoon Tractor Parade took on patriotic meaning
and community significance on June 9 with hundreds
of residents and visitors lining the streets and curbs,
sitting on parapets, hanging from rafters, standing
on porches high above the press of the crowd.
There was the latest
John Deere behemoth with double tires on each side.
There was the mid-range Farmall with multiple attachments
and there was James Mentreid’s ancient 1926
Model T, still able to putt-putt along like a proud
great-great-grandfather.
Bob and Linda Kays from Long Road in
the Beechwoods, the parade’s grand marshals,
led the over 270 machines from the grounds of the
Delaware Youth Center, through the village and back
to the youth center where the celebrants of an honored
farming tradition gathered to regale each other with
hotdogs, barbequed chicken and sodas. The tractors
were on display in the adjoining field, and traffic
was being directed by the youths from the Delaware
Valley Job Corps in Callicoon.
“We want to honor the fact that this
river valley is about farming,” said Kathy Langley,
one of the organizers of the volunteer group, “Friends
of the Tractor Parade.” “We’re 10 members strong and
growing every year,” she said.
The first parade was held in 1997 with
41 tractors participating.
“It’s a fine day for Callicoon
and the Town of Delaware,” said Town of Delaware
Supervisor Bill Moran.
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