Neighbors watch the annual tractor cruise Saturday morning in Hamptonville.
Lisa Michals | Special to The Yadkin Ripple
HAMPTONVILLE — Warm sunshine lit up the 17th annual Tractor Cruise and Community Breakfast hosted by the Windsor’s Crossroads Ruritan Club on Saturday in Hamptonville. More than 75 people came out to dine on country fixins and admire vintage tractors, some of which needed a quick tune up before wandering along county roads to the delight of onlookers.
Josh Pilcher, of Farmington, crawled underneath a tractor’s belly shortly before 10 a.m. to adjust the brakes.
“I just knew when I unloaded it this morning that it needed it,” he said.
Adelyn Prevette, 1, of Hamptonville, wished for a tractor aloud as she gazed up the row of gleaming farm equipment.
“Can I ride one?” she asked.
Her mother, Stephanie, told her they were just to look at and distracted her with promises of a second breakfast — she had already eaten at home earlier that morning.
Nearby, Jack King boasted that he had taken his 1973 135 Massey Ferguson to a wedding this past spring. It pulled a modified golf cart behind it like a chariot.
“You’re in Yadkin County, so he probably did take it to a wedding,” laughed Kay Wilkins, of Hamptonville.
King explained that he brought the rig to a wedding to help transport guests from a parking area up to the ceremony site.
Prior to the parade departing — at 10 a.m. sharp — organizers kindly asked attendees to “examine their finances” and consider making a donation toward a new monument that will honor Yadkin County veterans. The monument will also pay tribute to the late Stephen Tulbert, a charter member of the club who passed away in 2020, said Steven Mosteller, project organizer for Saturday’s event.
Immediately after the announcement about the monument, several people walked up to the organizers and humbly handed 20-dollar bills to go toward the cause.
And then the tractors pulled out one by one, many with American flags hoisted and fluttering behind, their drivers waving to residents who stepped outside and waved back.
Lisa Michals is a freelance writer based out of her hobby farm in Alleghany County. She is a regular contributor.