SEPTEMBER 2016 PARKER COUNTY TODAY
30-minute nap , work till nine o ’ clock at night . I love every minute of my day . I don ’ t sit around thinking , ‘ oh my knee hurts . Oh my … ‘ I don ’ t do that . I don ’ t have time ,” Roberts said . “ Isn ’ t that neat ?”
“ Rob is a very unique guy . He ’ s been around a long time . We talk motors and cars up at Balentine ’ s coffee shop ,” Raymond George said . “ The main thing I ’ ve learned about tractors is that I don ’ t need one . I ’ ve heard so much about them , that I don ’ t need them .”
But this hobby has taken a life of its own because each tractor is bequeathed to a family member . “ I bought my first tractor then the second and the third and I was asked what I was going to do with them ,” he said . “ So each one has been willed to a member of the family and he said ‘ well that ’ s good but what are you going to do in the mean time ?’” And that is where the idea of driving in the parades was born . This year he is participating in the Veterans Day Parade and the Sherriff ’ s Posse . In the first parade Roberts ’ entire family were involved . “ I ’ m having trouble because that last parade , was all family members . I ’ m kind of picky when it comes to drivers ,” Roberts explained . Not even Raymond George has driven one of Mr . Roberts ’ tractors . In fact , Raymond George hasn ’ t even seen the tractors .
“ He ’ s been trying to get me to come see them and I told him , ‘ Why don ’ t you sell them ?’ and he said ‘ They ’ re a novelty !’” George said . “ He said every one of those tractors is spoken for . When he ’ s gone all his kids are getting one .”
Though he enjoys the hobby , Mr . Roberts does admit it ’ s getting more difficult . “ No one else helps me . It ’ s a one-man job ,” Roberts explained . “ Something that people don ’ t realize is on these tractors , if you need a part you can ’ t just go down here to Ellis Equipment and buy a new part . There
are no new parts so you have to manufacture them yourself with grease , sheet metal work , welding , machining , laser work , drilling . The first thing is to make a drawing of it and then trying to select the materials that go into that and being able to stamp that drawing out .”
At the suggestion of his wife , Mr . Roberts sometimes makes the parts for himself . “ I hit a wall about nine months into one , and I was telling her about it and she asked me why I didn ’ t just make the part myself ,” he said . “ That ’ s what you run into . That ’ s my challenge , to try to make the part myself . And on that particular part there was no way I could buy it . For me to hire the work out I ’ d have to know a welder , forger , a machinist and someone who could draw it up . Well , by that time I ’ d pay all these people and I ’ d have a fortune into it . So why not ? I like a challenge .”
Although he doesn ’ t have much help he has gotten one of his grandsons interested in tractors like he has . “ I asked him ‘ What ’ s one thing you like to
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