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Every spring myself, my father and our friend Rex would travel to Wichita, Kansas to visit Harold Ottoway where we would tour his collection and deal on some of his treasures. My father and Rex did this for almost 20 years. I don’t remember the first time I went, but they would pick me up after school on Thursday and we’d drive through to get to Harold’s yard by Friday morning.

These trips became an important part of my life, something I wouldn’t realize until I was older.

My parents gave me a Sony Hi-8 Camera as a Christmas gift in 2000. I was taking it everywhere and still learning how to shoot with it. I took it with me on our trip in April 2001 and documented some of the experiences.

By the year 2001, most of the buildings were “empty”. My father told me stories about how the buildings were so full there was just a narrow path to crawl through, how high things were stacked and how even the tractor wheels were stacked full.

Even from one year to another, the collection was slowly dwindling. I remember using one of those big yellow battery powered flashlights, searching around in those buildings, hoping I didn’t run into the resident skunk. For a young kid, it was quite the adventure.

In April 2001, I was 17 years old. The buildings were dark, but my camera had a light, so I wondered through them and shot the best I could. This video isn’t the greatest, but there are some interesting shots and for me quite the time capsule.

Antique Tractor Life