[AT] When did tractor pulls become prevalent?

[Stephen Offiler]

I grew up in a rural-ish corner of Rhode Island, born 1962.  There was one
big fair annually, the Rocky Hill State Fair.  I remember going as a kid,
maybe as early as about 8, so starting 1970 or thereabouts, thru into my
teens. There were horse pulls, oxen pulls, and truck pulls, but no tractor
pulls.  The truck pulls were the big attraction.  Being rural-ish, we had
access to lands for off-roading recreation, so heavily modified 4x4 pickups
were fairly common.  The truck pulls gave the local boys a chance to play
Ford VS Chevy with some objective scoring.  I clearly recall the truck that
would put everybody to shame, a diesel F-350 plow truck (not a modified,
lifted, recreational 4x4).  It was always a battle for 2nd place.

I did not become aware of antique tractor pulls until I became an antique
tractor enthusiast in my early 30's.  The Rocky Hill State Fair was gone by
then, a victim, I assume, of general urbanization.  But other smaller fairs
in the region, one right down the street from me, plus a couple just to the
east in Massachusetts, and quite a few just to the west in Connecticut, are
doing fine, and that's where the tractor pulls are still going strong.

SO


On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 12:28 AM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com> wrote:

> When I was a kid, the small local fairs that I went to all had horse
> pulls. I never saw tractor pulls.  This was on 1960s.  One fair in
> particular I can still see in my mind’s eye quite clearly.  It’s damn
> impressive to see a team of Belgians(Belgian is my memory anyways) go at a
> nearly immovable object.  A front loader/bucket would show up, and put
> weight on the sled,  eliminating teams until one was left.  My memory is of
> two horse teams.
>
> I would normally suspect my experience was slanted toward Amish as I was
> born and  raised in my formative years in Pennsylvania; but we didn’t have
> a lot of Amish communities as I was on the western side of the state, not
> towards the middle (ie Lancaster).  Even so,  it was after a my father’s
> job relocation to Georgia as a 12 year old before I ever saw a tractor pull.
>
> I’m sure they were around much earlier than that, and my recollection is
> probably tainted by sampling bias (which fair’s my family took me,
> geography, etc).
>
> When did tractor pulls supplant horse pulls in your area?
>
> Spencer Yost
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