Man, Tractor Meet Again

From Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,136580,00.html)

Man, Tractor Meet Again

Monday, October 25, 2004

No, it's not a story pulled from the Soviet propaganda archives.

Mike Hottman of Aberdeen, S.D., recently got back together with his first love — a tractor.

His farming parents bought the 1964 Ford Series 2000 tractor (search) in 1965, when Hottman was just a toddler, reports the Aberdeen American News.

"I can still think of days where Mom was driving the tractor, and I was sitting there with her," he told the newspaper.

In the early 1990s, Hottman's now-widowed mother sold the tractor, and the three-stall garage that housed it, to another farmer in the nearby town of Ashley. Not much later, she herself passed away, never telling her son to whom the tractor went.

Hottman became a Chevrolet salesman and began fixing up old tractors in his spare time. Two years ago, a man from Ashley who'd just bought a car mentioned the photos of tractors on Hottman's office walls.

On a whim, Hottman asked the customer if he knew anyone in Ashley who'd bought an old Ford tractor along with a three-stall garage.

"He thought it was Randy and Eva Becker," Hottman told the American News. "I thought if I could meet this Randy and just visit with him and see it, maybe I'd have a chance at getting it back — but a real small chance."

The Beckers did have it. There was one catch — Randy Becker would only give it up in exchange for another antique tractor.

Hottman did find one on eBay, but Becker didn't like it.

"I thought I'd never get the little Ford tractor back!" said Hottman.

Finally, on March 29 of this year, Becker called to say he'd found something acceptable. The next day, the Ford was in Hottman's hands.

"I was very excited and emotional," exclaimed Hottman. "I thought, 'Can this really be?'"

Fully restored, the Ford is now running in parades and at agricultural shows.

Hottman may give the tractor to his 20-year-old daughter. He may not fix up any more tractors.

"The Ford was my ultimate goal," he told the newspaper.