GREENCASTLE, Ind. – There will be plenty of stories behind the beloved antique tractors and other machinery during an upcoming display in Indiana that will feature, for the first time, motor vehicles from back in the day.

For example, Justin Vaughn said he was just a kid when he started riding his two 1955 Oliver tractors passed down from his father, Gaylord, and grandfather, Robert.

Vaughn said he still puts them to work at the family farm for things like pulling logs and wagon rides. He also drives them in parades and takes them out for joyrides.

“They’re not all shiny with a $4,000 paint job like a lot of them, but they look pretty good,” he said.

Dave Bruner will be there with his 1957 Oliver tractor formerly owned by his grandfather, and the 1965 Chevy Chevelle Malibu he purchased in high school and just recently had fully restored.

He bought the car with money earned bagging groceries at a local supermarket and later drove it to and from Purdue University where he enrolled after graduating.

Bruner said he enjoys taking his wife and grandchildren along for rides in the car that he kept in his barn without cranking the engine for close to 50 years.

“It’s quite a feeling,” he said.

Both men are members of the Putnam County Antique Tractor and Machinery Association, which is hosting the event for the 9th consecutive year on June 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’ll be at the Putnam County Fairgrounds along U.S. 231 in Greencastle. Admission is free.

There will also be several dozen vendors offering food, beverages, arts and crafts along with a swap meet for the first time so people can buy, sell or trade car and tractor parts.

Other attractions are a pedal tractor pull for kids, blacksmith demonstrations, a petting zoo and wagon rides.

“There’s going to be a lot of people,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn and Bruner were among the founding members of the association formed about a decade ago to offer a glimpse of a way of life, especially for children without a connection to such a heritage.

“It’s mostly about kids,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn said he expects anywhere from 30 to 50 antique tractors of various brands to be in the show, along with some farm implements and hit and miss engines of different sizes.

In past shows, Vaughn said people have brought their hit and miss engines to operate things like corn shucking and ice cream making machines.

“Sometimes, the large ones are sitting on a trailer. They’re huge,” he said.

Bruner said it’s difficult to predict with any car show how many owners will show up but thinks there could be as many as 40 or more antique vehicles, depending on weather and response to free registration at the gates.

“I got a lot of people saying they’re going to come,” he said.

Also happening at the fairgrounds that day will be the Texas Longhorn Association show featuring about 50 head of cattle with horns up to eight feet long in the show arena starting at 10 a.m.

Bruner, 72, had his car and the tractor he started riding on his grandfather’s farm at age 9 fully restored after a near death experience with COVID-19 a few years ago.

He was on a ventilator for 16 days in what turned out to be a two-month hospital stay. He then spent another 90 days recovering at home “learning how to talk, walk and breathe again,” he said.

After buying the tractor from his grandfather, Bruner said he stored it in his barn for 15 years because the engine wouldn’t run.

Bruner said he parked his car in the barn after purchasing another vehicle after he and his wife decided to get married and travel to Florida.

“I bought it for $1,050 in 1970. I got a lot of old friends that go I can’t believe you kept that thing,” he said.

He later became involved in finance and land appraisal at a farm credit company while raising anywhere from 25 to about 40 Columbia sheep, the same species he showed during his 10 years in 4-H and FFA programs.