[AT] Some ads from the 10/2 Lancaster Farming

[Mike Sloane]

Dudley Rupert wrote:

> Mark,
> 
> I am sure yours' is the right interpretation - at least more so than mine!
> I think it's amusing/head scratching to try and diagram some of these ads.
> With the multiple subjects, modifiers that are as apt to appear after the
> subject as before and almost total lack of punctuation I think five
> different folks would often come up with five different interpretations.
For those of you who may not have been around when I explained the 
process of placing an ad in "Mailbox Markets", here it is:

Subscribers to Lancaster Farming are entitled to place one or two ads 
per month in "Mailbox Markets". We have to fill out a coupon from the 
paper and attach the mailing label (to prove we are subscribers). There 
are only 20 spaces to put words in, and we need to include the country 
and telephone number. That is the easy part.

Many of the subscribers are Amish of one kind or another, and some don't 
have telephones, some only answer the phone on weekdays, some arrange 
for a phone line and have only an answering machine or work their sales 
through a local "English" (non Amish friend or neighbor). In addition, 
many of the Amish don't believe in extensive education and pull the kids 
out of school in the lower grades or have them attend an Amish academy 
(in Lancaster). And since they often speak mostly a kind of antique 
German (with some modern words that have Germanticized - "der 
telephonerringer") with english as a second language, the resulting ads 
can be amusing. (It is not unusual to see ads for a "Ford 9 end", for 
instance.) Anyone old enough to remember the Saturday Evening Post and a 
cartoon called "Henrich Schnibble" (or something like that) will 
understand why some of the ads come out funny to us. In addition, the 
clerks at Lancaster Farming have to figure out the scribbled ads and get 
550 or so keyed in every week in time for the Saturday edition, so 
mistakes happen. (There are also the "Wanted" and "Notices" categories 
that I don't bother with.) And as you can imagine, the paid classifieds 
take precedence over the free ads when it comes to proof reading. :-)

I select only a few ads that interest me and (hopefully) you folks, but 
there are ads for just about everything you can imagine from accordians 
to windmills, mules, courting buggeys, church pews, tobacco lathes 
(whatever they are), and implements of all kinds. And of course the 
usual hay, cows, dairy equipment, and the kind of stuff that you would 
expect in a farming area.

As it happened, the paper comes out on Saterday, and I received about 10 
calls on my Farmall H ad. One man came out this morning, chatted for a 
while, kicked the tires, haggled a little, and drove away with the 
tractor and all the pieces on his trailer. It turned out that he has a 
collection of 60 tractors in various states of repair, including half a 
dozen H models. He wasn't aware of ATIS, but he is now. :-) I was still 
getting calls late into Sunday afternoon.

Mike
> 
> Dudley
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of Mark Greer
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 12:23 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] Some ads from the 10/2 Lancaster Farming
> 
> 
> I read that ad as a JD 520, a JD 60, a JD B, a hydr. car lift, a garden
> pulling tractor, an IH 544, a Farmall H, and two Corvettes for sale in
> Franklin County, PA. Anyone see something different?
> Mark Greer
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dudley Rupert" <drupert at premier1.net>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 1:19 AM
> Subject: RE: [AT] Some ads from the 10/2 Lancaster Farming
> 
> 
> 
>>John Deere 520 60 A B hydraulic car lift Garon pulling tractor IH 544
>>Farmall H (2) Corvettes. Frank. Co. 717-532-2873.
>>
>>>From my earliest childhood I can still remember hearing mom and dad
> 
> telling
> 
>>us kids that life isn't fair. I've often thought, however, that life could
>>be pretty close to being fair if I could just boast of having one corvette
>>parked back in the shed.  But ... here is a guy in Franklin County that
> 
> has
> 
>>two Farmall H's for sale so he says in his ad that he has (2).  However,
> 
> he
> 
>>must have so many corvettes for sale that he doesn't even know how many he
>>has (or the number he has is too big to put in the ad) so he just simply
>>says "corvettes" as in plural/many/more than one.  Gee Whiz, why did I
> 
> even
> 
>>question mom and dad - of course they were right after all.
>>
>>Dudley
>>Snohomish, Washington


-- 
Mike Sloane
Allamuchy NJ
Email: (mikesloane at verizon.net)
Website: <http://www.geocities.com/mikesloane>
Blog: <www.mikesloane.blogspot.com
Tractor images: <www.fotki.com/mikesloane>
Work: none - retired

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and the government 
when it deserves it. -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)