Tractors on parade in Callicoon

On Sunday, June 10, Callicoon hosted the 16th Annual Tractor Parade. At noon, over 250 tractors of all shapes, sizes and colors paraded down Main Street, and at the end of the day a chicken barbecue was held at the Delaware Community Center.

All photos and captions by Watershed Post correspondent Jason Dole.

Tractors came from miles around in many ways. This one, arriving on Route 97 over the bridge, may have been brought in on a trailer nearby.

 

Every inch of Main Street, Callicoon was packed with people watching 259 tractors roll through town.

 

The Tractor Parade sprouts two-lane tractor traffic as it nears the Delaware Youth Center.

 

Everyday farmers, former farmers, and tractor aficionados become celebrities at the Tractor Parade, subjected to cheering fans and shutterbugs.

 

Possibly the only “Harley” in the parade, Sullivan West 6th-grader Harley Klinger rides his ’54 Ford NAA.


J.D. Card (left) motors his ’48 Farmall H past the tractors that have just finished in the parade.

 

This unstyled John Deere, likely a Model B, dates to the late 1930s.

 

Doug Diehl’s “Moo Train” is a 2002 John Deere with steer horns.

 

Tractors park behind the Delaware Youth Center at the end of the parade, giving spectators an up-close look and a chance to learn a thing or two. Here, “Super” Pete Lovelace shows the many attachments that were available for a ’46 Farmall A.

 

Tyler Hillriegel served as “Grand Marshal” of the Tractor Parade, riding up front with his ’49 Oliver Row Crop. What’s the appeal of old tractors for a teenage boy? “Girls think they’re sexy,” confides Hillriegel.

 

Fred Gerhard of New Jersey (right) rode in the parade with his son-in-law Sean O’Sullivan (left) and son Rick Gerhard. The Tractor Parade takes the senior Gerhard back to his youth. He grew up on a Long Island farm before the housing developments took root.

 

This ‘51 Ferguson T020 belongs to Charles MacPeek Sr.

 

People from across the Catskills attended the Tractor Parade.

 

This immaculately restored ’39 Farmall F-14 belongs to Jack Farquhar of Livingston Manor.

 

Jack Farquhar rests on the rear wheel of his ’39 Farmall F-14.

 

This ’56 John Deere 60 belongs to Daryl Cucci and was the only tractor seen by this reporter that featured a peace sign.

 

Betty Knack (left) of Callicoon buys lunch to share with her partner, Henry Hermann. Delaware Youth Center President Tess McBeath says the parade and barbecue are the Youth Center’s biggest annual fundraiser.

 

Friends pile on Dave Olsen’s ’47 John Deere G and leave the Youth Center.

 

Orange triangles abound on local roads after the 2012 Tractor Parade comes to a close.