The kids & I passed a really lazy Sunday afternoon yesterday watching one of my favorite movies, Cars. One thing that struck me while watching it is that they could have cast the herd of tractors a little better; in the movie the likeness of an old Farmall tractor was used to portray the cow-like tractors. To me, an old two-cylinder John Deere would’ve been better. The putt-putt sound of the old John Deere two-cylinder tractors is much more distinctive, and would’ve been better in the part. If you’ve never heard one run before, take a listen with the links below, or click on the YouTube links to watch the associated videos.
Dad had at least one John Deere B that I knew of — among other old-timer tractors, like the Farmall Super C & H — and I have great memories of those clunky old machines. It’s funny how sounds like that will bring back a flood of memories. It’s also funny that people put so much effort in saving memories in photographs, when sounds and smells have so much stronger a connection to memory. I remember hearing those things run, with the putt-putt/pop-pop noise backed up by a whine from spinning gears and flywheels and moving parts just waiting to take off a finger or an arm.
It seems that the old John Deere motors tended to have fewer cylinders, but those cylinders were pretty large, and the motors used massive flywheels to keep the crank turning even when a cylinder would misfire. And that was often. And that’s what gives the old John Deere’s their distinctive sound, and their nickname; Johnny Popper.