Chapter 3

Returning to my room in the dorm, I changed clothes and then wondered where my roommate was. He had left the room in a mess, as usual. I straightened things up before sitting on my bed to study some. The studying didn't go well, as I couldn't concentrate for some reason.

My mind kept going back to the two women that I worked for. They said that they were sixteen, but they acted much more mature than that. Plus I had begun to wonder where their parents were. I hadn't seen anyone else at their house in the last week but the minister this morning. Where were their parents?

What kind of parent would go off and leave two sixteen-year-olds, even mature ones, alone in an old house for an extended period of time? Certainly it must be over ten days by now. Were they on vacation, and if so wouldn't their daughters have gone with them? Did one or both of them work somewhere else? Why were these two young women apparently alone in that big house, and what about their schooling? They seemed to leave their property very seldom.

Also who had gotten that sticker on the pickup and when? Hershel had said that it was outdated. Had one or both of their parents graduated from the university? It was after all an alumni sticker. All of this was very troubling, and I had no answers to any of it.

Finally, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and called it a day, turned out the lights, and went to sleep. My roommate never did show up that night, thankfully, as he snores. I did wake up a couple of times that night to hear the wind blowing and the rain pouring down outside.

When I got up the next morning, it was still pouring out and didn't look like it was going to let up any time soon. My roommate came in soon after I was up.

"It's pouring out there!" he said in disgust. "I spent the night in Brenda's room. Can you believe that her roommate snores!?"

"I didn't know that women snore!!" I said.

"Well, this one does, and we couldn't do anything while she was there, either!" my roommate told me in a very disgusted voice, as he changed out of his soaked clothes, which he threw on the floor.

"Those won't dry there," I told him in passing. He was so disgusted that he just kicked them over by the door.

"I'll take care of them later," he told me, but I was sure that he wouldn't.

"I'm going to the cafeteria for breakfast, are you interested?" I asked.

"Yes, give me a few minutes. I have an early class, but need something to eat. We ate early yesterday before going up to her room," he told me.

I had one of those cheap plastic rain ponchos and put it on over my clothes and books before we left for the cafeteria. Once there my roommate saw his girlfriend and joined her, apparently forgetting his early class. After having breakfast, I went over to the library to study, before my first class of the day.

The rain continued all morning, and was still coming down when I got out of my last class for the day at 1:00 PM. The women had definitely been right, as I would never have ridden out to their house on the bike in this rain. It was just too dangerous.

In the library that morning, I hadn't done any studying after all. Instead I had started a search for information on the early history of the area around Statesboro. I hadn't been very successful, as apparently most of the older books are kept locked up. I spoke to my History Professor later to see if I could get access to them.

Arriving at the house in the driving rain, I was definitely glad that I hadn't attempted to make the trip on the Kawasaki. At best it would be several days before the ground dried out enough for any work to be done on it, once the rain stopped. That should give me time to go over the farm equipment thoroughly, and start any needed repairs and sharpening.

The women were standing on the back part of the front porch out of the rain, as I pulled the truck to a stop before it and got out.

"This has certainly been a downpour," Mary Kate said, as I gained the cover of the porch.

"Yes, it certainly has," I agreed.

"Will you still be able to check out the farm machinery?" Mary Margaret asked, questioningly.

"Yes, but I'll need light. Are there electric lights in the stable?"

"No, we never had electric power installed there, but there are several kerosene lanterns there for light. There is also a container of kerosene to refill them," Mary Kate told me.

"OK, fine. I'll go over there and get started. I'm fairly sure that I'll need to change the oil on the tractor, but I can do that after it stops raining. I'll have to see about the battery, also. I may need to jump the tractor off using the pickup. We did that a lot with my uncles' machinery," I told them.

A careful inspection of the farm equipment brought several problems to light. The disk harrow (a JD 5'-0" KBL model) would need to have two disks replaced. One was cracked and the other one had lost a part of the rim, possibly from hitting a large rock or from being improperly heat-treated. It was difficult to tell.

Of the rest of the equipment, the MT-200, Two-Row Cultivator, would require replacing some parts that were worn. The MT-2, Two-Bottom Plow, would require sharpening, as would the MT-7, 5 Disk Tiller. The 212A, Planting and Fertilizing Attachment, would need cleaning and adjustment as would the MT-30, Listers. The blade of the bush hog would also need sharpening and the JD 240, Planter, would need the various seed plates checked.

I would need to try the local John Deere dealership to see if I could get the replacement parts. As old as their equipment was, I wasn't sure if parts were still available. My uncles' equipment was a little newer (JD series 40) and some parts were in short supply for them.

In light of these problems, I was very careful when I inspected the Model MT tractor itself. It was a good thing that I was, as I found a large crack in the Hydraulic pump housing, and the Touch-o-Matic Assembly and Control Quadrant were a mess of dried hydraulic fluid as the assembly was leaking badly, plus the hydraulic system itself was dry. The starter was also shot and leaking grease. By now it was after 4:30 and the dealer would be closed before I could get there today. I checked to be sure the kerosene lamps were all out and headed back to the front porch to talk to my employers about what I had found. I had written down the tractor type (MT) and the serial number (33215) first.

The women responded to my knock on the door in a minute or so, and quickly saw the frown on my face.

"What's wrong?" Mary Margaret was the first to ask.

"There are some minor parts required for the accessory equipment, but the tractor has a cracked hydraulic pump, the Touch-o-Matic leaks like a sieve, and the starter is shot. I'm not sure if I can obtain one. I'll have to stop at the dealer tomorrow to check."

"Yes, do that," Mary Kate told me. "Do you have any idea how much it might cost?"

"I have no idea what it would cost, or even if the assemblies are available. You will also need new gaskets when we install each of them," I told them.

"Check on the availability and the cost tomorrow. Let's hope that they are available," Mary Kate told me before I left in the pickup to return to school. The rain had tapered off some by then.

Tuesday was my light day, as I didn't have a class until 10:00 that morning. In the library, I did some more research on Statesboro and Bulloch county. The county itself had been established in 1796, but there were already settlers in the area before that time. Many small farms and a number of plantations had already been established in the area of rich land along the Ogeechee River valley near the Old River road. Statesboro wasn't created by the state legislature until December 1803 as the county seat.

During the Civil War, Sherman's men burnt the courthouse in Statesboro, but it was only a crude log structure and was used as a barn when court wasn't in session. I also learned that Statesboro grew rapidly in the last half of the nineteenth century to serve the interests of the region's farmers.

In the early nineteen hundreds, cotton became king in the south of Georgia and Statesboro became a leading market. After the destruction of the cotton crop by the boll weevil in the 1930's, the local farmers switched to tobacco as a cash crop, and Statesboro became a major market in the Tobacco Belt covering Georgia and Florida.

Georgia Southern started as the Georgia Teacher's College shortly after 1900 and became a university in 1990 with a student body of approximately 15,000 students.

After classes I went to the local John Deere dealership to check on the availability of the replacement parts, starter, and gaskets, plus the parts for the other equipment.

The clerks in the service department were fairly friendly and were able to help me on most of the parts for the accessory equipment. It was the hydraulic pump and Touch-o-Matic assembly that were the problem. There weren't any in stock, and they weren't sure if they could get them. A new starter was $274.00 alone. That was when one of the salesmen came over to talk to me.

"If you're interested, we have a used late model MT on the lot. We took it in trade. The motor is blown, but everything else is in fairly good condition and it also has some accessories that came with it," he told me.

"How much do you want for it?" I asked.

"Five hundred dollars and it's yours. You'll have to haul it away though," he told me.

"I'll need to talk to my employers to see if they are interested," I told him.

"OK, but it's first come on the MT," he told me. "I wouldn't be able to hold it."

"Yes, I'll see what my employers think this afternoon," I told him, and he gave me his card. I went out on the lot and checked over the MT tractor there.

"That was a very popular model when it came out," another salesman told me while I was looking at the tractor on their lot.

"Yes, my employers have one," I told him, but left it at that.

After arriving at the house, I knocked on the front door to talk to the women about what I had learned at the dealership.

"Hello, Mark. Come in," Mary Margaret said when she opened the door. We went to the small parlor, but it wasn't set up for tea now.

"What have you learned?" Mary Kate asked when we were all seated. They were on the sofa, and I was seated on the armchair.

"Most of the parts for the accessory equipment are available. The hydraulic pump and the Touch-o-Matic assembly are the problem. They don't know if they can even get them, as other than individual parts and the cost that way would be prohibitive. The starter is $274.00 alone.

"A salesman approached me about a used MT that they have on the lot. The engine is blown, but the rest of the tractor is in pretty good condition. He said it would make a good parts tractor. It also comes with some accessory equipment," I informed them.

"How much do they want for it?" Mary Kate asked.

"The salesman said five hundred dollars and we would have to haul it off ourselves," I told them.

"Is it worth that?" Mary Margaret asked.

"I looked at it, and it appears to be in good shape except for the motor. We would need to rent a trailer to move it and that would add to the cost. You don't have a trailer, do you?"

"No, we don't have a trailer, but we have rented one in the past to move things, and the truck has a trailer hitch. When would you need the money?" Mary Kate asked.

"The salesman said it was first come on the tractor, and that he couldn't hold it," I told them.

"Would we need to move it today?" Mary Margaret asked. "It's getting late to do all of that."