Vendor booth gives Kelly Birkey opportunity to see friends

PENFIELD, Ill. — Kelly Birkey likes to set up a vendor booth at the Half Century of Progress and the Historic Farm Days shows to visit with the people.

“We’ve sold here for years and have had as high as eight tables and now we have two,” said Birkey during the recent Historic Farm Days event organized by the I & I Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Club.

“The people we’ve seen is amazing,” he said. “They look for us and we look for them every year.”

Birkey first learned about the I & I club when he was asked to judge tractors at the show.

“I was a farm equipment dealer in Paxton and they asked three dealers to judge tractors,” he said.

Along with several brothers, Birkey was a IH dealer for many years.

“We all knew how to handle a wrench and I started working when I was 19 years old,” Birkey said. “In 1967, I joined the corporation and went to Paxton to be a dealer.”

“In 1978, I transferred to the Hoopeston and opened a new store and then retired out of the Paxton store in 1994,” he said.

“I enjoyed being a dealer tremendously and I never once had a serious argument with my brothers,” said Birkey, who is 94 years old. “We would disagree a lot of times and that’s OK because you get someone else’s opinion.”

“After I retired I came out to Penfield and worked every day a month ahead of the show,” he said. “And two or three other guys did the same thing.”

A lot of work has been completed at the show grounds in Penfield.

“When we first got the school building it was terrible with broken windows, but the club members went to work,” Birkey said. “One of the worst jobs was taking the asphalt tiles and dissolving the glue off the floor, but we got it all cleaned up.”

In the early years, the tractor pull had only a few entries and it was held close to where Birkey has his vendor booth.

“The ground where we have the pulls now was excavated. We changed the shape of that whole area,” he said. “A lot of other clubs can’t imagine how we got to where we are today.”

Along with his work at the IH dealership, Birkey also had a Cub Cadet business at home where he restored the lawn tractors.

“In the ‘80s, IH produced Cub Cadets without power steering and everybody else had power steering,” Birkey said.

“So, I took the red ones and put power steering on them,” he said. “I probably did over 200 in 30 years, but I can’t do it anymore.”

Birkey sold many of his extra parts at the Half Century and Historic Farm Days shows.

“I parted out 200 cub cadets and now I’m down to three items,” he said.

In addition, Birkey collected a lot of farm toys.

“I had a couple rooms full of farm toys and I sold all of them,” he said. “I restore farm toys, too, and I’ve got one at home now I’m working on.”