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View Full Version : old friend Alexander Botts came by today



Delta Dirt
12-05-2009, 07:39 PM
My nephew came down duck hunting this morning and brought along a couple of the old Alexander Botts books that my brother had collected up when my mother passed away. My brother died in 2000-------and no one knew where these great books had gotten off to. My sister in law called a couple of weeks ago and had run across them-------------getting these old books back is just like having an old friend stop by for a visit.

I had grown up reading and re-reading the stories about the great "Earthworm" tractors. Ironically----------I did not remember that ol' Botts got hired on with the Earthworm Tractor Company while in Memphis, Tennesee-----------and his first assignment wuz down at Cypress City, Mississippi.

Must be more than "happen chance" that so many of my life experiences seems to run parallel with Alexander Botts great stories. (if I had only remembered that Botts got his start in Cypress City, Mississippi------I would have been able to make better sense out of some of my experiences) :rolleyes: :D

For those of you who don't know about Alexander Botts-----by his modest account, he wuz "the greatest tractor salesman of all time", working for the greatest tractor manufacturer in the world----th Earthworm Tractor Company, Earthworm City, Illinois (don't know-----but, I just always figured that Earthworm City wuz somewhere close to Peoria, Illinois??). Botts seemingly always fell into a barrell of manure----------but always seemingly found the postive side of the situation (most probably coming out of a bad situation by selling highly profitable fertilizer). ;):D

These stories started out in the Saturday Evening Post-------and were later turned into book form. My oldest book was printed in 1946-----its stamped "Stribling Bros. Machinery Co., Greenwood, Mississippi", who was the Caterpillar dealer at that time. Great reading-------lots of laughing on each page.

Delta Dirt

OzDozer
12-05-2009, 08:05 PM
DD - And if you can't find the book, you can watch the movie "Earthworm Tractors" .. starring Joe E Brown as Alexander Botts .. which is based on the book .. right here on the Internet Movie archive ..

It's an hour and eight minutes long, make sure you got a comfortable chair, and pull out some popcorn .. :D

http://www.archive.org/details/earthworm_tractors

Barstart
12-05-2009, 10:04 PM
My kids started reading a modern reprint, and they fought over that book for two weeks.

Glen Hayward
12-05-2009, 10:58 PM
Thanks OzDozer ! I had popcorn and some good laughs (my daughter told me not to be so loud) , it was interesting to see the factory but what I couldn't believe the catskinner in the last scene on the bridge ! No computer generated special effects here ! I think Depends doesn't make a "undergarment" capable of handling what I would give it !