Recently we attended the Kubik family reunion in northeast Nebraska to visit with Kelli’s mother’s family. I am curious to know when you last attended a family reunion. As a kid, our family would go to the Loos reunion each year.
All my cousins would come and it would be a day full of activities where the kids played games outside like football or softball. The adults would mostly sit inside visiting and catching up, but usually there were one or two cool uncles who would try to impress us boys in a sports contest.
It doesn’t seem that there are as many of these family events today truly involving three, four or maybe even five generations. Most of them are attended by folks who are too old to drive themselves to the event. The next two generations always have more important things to do, unfortunately. At the Kubik reunion, there was one uncle who wasn’t trying to impress any teenage kids, but boy did he impress us. Kelli’s uncle Don Kubik, from Emerson, who turned 88 the day after the reunion, is a walking encyclopedia of the history of farming.
To the folks in the old tractor world, Kubik is no stranger with friends in the business across the continent. As you read this, he is in Ontario, Canada, attending the International Cockshutt Club summer show. I wonder how many people know about the history of the Cockshutt tractor, or even that it existed. I conducted an interview with Don about his family’s history with Cockshutts and his first statement was, “Well on Feb. 11, 1948, our family’s life changed forever. My Dad went to town and bought a Cockshutt tractor and my brother drove it home.”
He speaks of the rationing that was still taking place at the time even with the availability of farm equipment. As we foolishly have so many people talking about World War III looming, I wish they would attend a family reunion and listen to the folks that are still alive today about the cause and effect that World War II had on us. For the record, Don and two of his brothers both served in the Army. When I asked him why he signed up, he stated simply and to the point, “I was drafted.”
Don has 85 Cockshutt tractors on his farm. He can tell you how he acquired each one. The one attribute that Don is quick to point out is that, at the time, most tractors had two or three gears. The Cockshutt of the day had eight gears. In the era of hydro steer or automatic transmissions, we may lose sight of the importance of that, but in the day that would have been huge. Don speaks of Canadian Bill Cockshutt and how advanced his knowledge was in assembling a tractor that provided exactly what the farmers of the day needed.
Cockshutt developed a partnership with Hart-Parr which later became Oliver, then morphed into White.
Don has one very unique 1952 Cockshutt model 30 tractor—his parade tractor—which was the work horse of the day. It is a 33 horsepower tractor that cost $1,700 in 1952, and I will not even tell you how much he recently turned down for that machine. The most important take away from this conversation is the amount of knowledge Don has in his head about a lifetime of farming. Not to mention the reality of inflation and his formula, that he quickly recited to me, about how the farmer is currently getting about 9 cents on the dollar for corn compared to the 1950s.
I know that we have so many cool toys that open us up to the world wide web, but the best search engine you can find is sitting in the coffee shop in your local community, wearing a pair of bib overalls, waiting to share what he or she has experienced in real life with anyone who is willing to listen. I think it is a great time for more reunions and more people in listening mode.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth-generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show “Loos Tales” and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
PHOTO: (Left) Don Kubik discusses Cockshutt tractors with Trent Loos. (Courtesy photo.)