By MARGIE TRAX PAGE - Staff Writer - mtrax@starbeacon.com
GENEVA — The old Farmall had seen better days when Richard Craine found it rusting away in a friend’s field.
Richard Craine traded some work on a car for the tractor, hauled it home and spent hours fixing it. The old seat would hold two more generations of children before it found itself back in disrepair, tucked away in a barn.
But Richard Craine’s grandson Cody Craine, 16, had the same idea his grandfather had all those years ago. He pulled the greasy tractor from its place in the barn and got started on the spark plugs, the wiring and the paint. Cody used the tractor as his project for a class at the Ashtabula County Joint Vocational school, keeping his progress secret from his grandfather until a big open house unveiling at the ACJVS.
All Cody’s work — and his talent for repairing broken machinery — didn’t escape grandma Bonnie Craine’s eye. Proud to the point of bursting, Bonnie Craine put pen to paper and wrote the article “Grandpa C Rides Again” for Farm and Ranch Living Magazine.77
“My sister subscribes to this magazine and I thought it would be kind of neat to write about Cody and the tractor,” Bonnie Craine said. “I never thought it would get published, but I was really excited when it did.”
The attention the article has brought the Craine family is astounding, Bonnie Craine said.
“It is amazing how many people have read and responded to this article,” Bonnie Craine said.
Richard Craine said he is proud of his four children and eight grandchildren and takes special notice of Cody’s talent with machinery.
“At any given time, Cody’s parents’ three-car garage is full of Cody’s projects,” he said. “Tractors, lawn mowers, all sorts of things he has taken apart to fix. He has three tractors apart right now. Cody is very handy, very mechanical. He is always working on something.”
Bonnie Craine said she enjoys her country life, which includes her brother Brad, who lives with the couple.
“All my grandchildren keep us very entertained. They make our life complete. We are so lucky,” she said.
In her article “Grandpa C Rides Again,” Bonnie Craine said Cody’s work on the old Farmall tractor will last for generations.
“Someday I suspect I will have fun teaching his own children, and maybe grandchildren, to drive the Farmall, just like his grandpa did. There’s a lot of love in that old tractor,” she wrote.
