[AT] Portland fall swap meet

[Indiana Robinson]

	We went to the fall swap meet Saturday morning and on the 
way wondered if there would be anybody there. The spring 
meet of course has hundreds and hundreds of vendors (maybe 
Gene Dotson knows how many). I would say that this first 
fall meet had less than half as many as the  spring one but 
this was the first fall one after all. It was a decent turn 
out with all the usual kinds of cherished "STUFF" on hand. 
It was a little short of buyers and was a little slow but I 
would still call it a good successful swap. The Tri-State 
club did a fine job as always of handling things.
	There was one problem that I have had before... I bought 
more than I sold...   ;-)    How could I pass on a 13.6 X 
38 - 8 ply rated radial Goodyear with about 10% tread that 
I sneaked off with for $10. It was a very young tire in 
good condition carcass-wise since it had come off of a high 
wheeled commercial spray rig and had been worn down by road 
use. I also bought a big batch of flat belt splices and the 
splicer at one place for about $25 and another box of the 
gator type at another for $10. I have bought that stuff in 
farm stores before and believe me I stole this.   :-)

	I owe Cecil In OK an apology... I did not strike fast 
enough. I like to walk the whole thing first then go back 
and find those things that I was interested in and look 
again. One thing that I got back to too late was a fellow 
with two complete Gravely tractors on a trailer (I don't 
think either ran) for $30 each. Sitting on the ground 
beside the trailer was a Gravely sickle mower attachment 
that looked good marked $20... I was going to go back and 
make an offer on all three but when I got back to him he 
had pulled stakes and left. A number of guys left quite 
early because they thought it was too slow. Sorry Cecil...
	Another jewel I missed out on was a nice looking fair 
sized mechanical abor press for $30. And so it goes...  I 
don't like to just walk around buying the first thing I see 
that I want until I have looked around to see what all is 
available. There just might be some budget busting item 
waiting around the corner that I just must have and if I 
have spent down before it see it I would maybe become 
suicidal over missing it...   :-)
	Good swap meet for the first fall one and I will plan it 
in for next year. Got to see Gary and Gene Dotson (missed 
Larry Dotson) and Dewey. Ate a great huge fish sandwich for 
lunch and treated myself to a DQ chocolate malt on the way 
home. Beautiful weather too. How could you not call that a 
successful swap meet.   :-) 


-- 
"farmer"
Hewick Midwest

The master in the art of living makes little distinction 
between his 
work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and 
his body, 
his information and his recreation, his love and his 
religion. He 
hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision 
of 
excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide 
whether he 
is working or playing. To him he's always doing both. 
 ~ James A. Michener, attributed

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net