The Great Hayride

Back in the spring of 1938 Verdie Gilbertson rushed home from school to get a look at a brand spanking new 1938 Model B John Deere Tractor. It was green, shiny and ready for a family of four boys to put it to work. Gerhard and his boys let the horses rest and the John Deere plowed many a day.. dawn to dusk. Little did Verdie know that almost seventy years later in June 2007, he would be firing up that very same tractor at his home farm and putting it to work once more.

This time the trusty old John Deere pulled a hay rack full of smiling and excited Gilbertson relatives on a leisurely ride to the old family church yard just on up the gravel road from the home place. By one count on the first ride there were twenty nine people and one dog. On the next ride, I counted twenty one smiling riders and a couple of cats..

On June 23, 24, 2007, the descendants of Jens and Sarah Gilbertson from Mandt Township near Montevideo, Minnesota got together at the Gilbertson farm for an old fashioned family reunion. Four generations of the Gilbertson family were along for this special hayride. Verdie, the Great Grandpa was driving the John Deere tractor. All four of his children jumped up on the haybales ready for a historic ride. Verdie's grandaughter Sarah, had great grandaughter Elizabeth sitting on her lap and holding on tight. Sitting with them were many cousins and aunts and uncles. Along the road to Mandt Lutheran church the family went past lush green cornfields on a beautiful summer evening. The old church had to be torn down a few years back but the bell is mounted under cover and it was a special thrill for the young kids to pull the lever and hear the bell ring.