Tractors: 'A rhythm that gets under your skin'

When asked what she likes about antique tractors, Dorine Ramsden closes her eyes, makes two fists and cycles her arms like an engine.

"The sound of the tractor is different from any other," Ramsden said. "While it is running it has a rhythm that gets under your skin."

The ninth version of the annual north Douglas County show this weekend is expected to attract 200-300 tractors and 100 single-cycle engines and antique trucks.

Four of them belong to Bill and Dorine Ramsden, who host the show on their property off Heybourne Road in Minden.

"It is a great family gathering," she said.

Dorine likes to dispel the myth that the tractors are just for men.

"Women come to really like the tractors," she said.

The bad news this year is that the Ramsdens have had to bump up the admission to $4 from last year's $3.

"The money all goes back into the event," she said. "We don't want anything out of it. If we make more money than it costs to put on, then that goes to Sertoma or back to the Antique Tractor Club."

It costs about $10,000 to put on the event, which has seen crowds of up to 3,000 people on the Ramsdens' 10-acre lot. Carson Valley Sertoma sells refreshments at the show.

"I was so scared the first year," Dorine said. "I never said anything to Bill, because he wanted to do it, but I was like an anxious kid. But when I started seeing the people come and saw how much fun they were having, I had a ball."

Because the Ramsdens are holding the tractor show on their own property, Dorine said the first time she was afraid the place would be left a mess.

"Sunday after the first show there were only six pieces of trash," she said.

"People were so great and it is so much appreciated when they pick up after themselves."

That first antique tractor show in 1996 attracted 1,500 visitors.

This will be the second year the show features a 1,200-square-foot replica of a 1900-vintage general store, with a steep roof and a cupola on top.

The Ramsdens own Carson Valley's Central Sierra Construction.

Kurt Hildebrand is editor for the Record-Courier Contact him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com or at 782-5121 ext. 215.

IF YOU GO

What: Ninth annual Antique Engine and Tractor Show

Where: Corner of Heybourne Road and Stephanie Way, Minden

When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $4 at gate, 11-younger free

Call: 267-4816 or 246-3157