Ralph Rockwell is a mechanic in Wolcott, Vermont, and he runs a tow truck business. He's been rebuilding old vehicles since he was 15. Now he's 72 and he restores old tractors. His wife estimates they have 29 tractors at the moment.
I love listening to Ralph talk about his work as a mechanic. Each vehicle story contains the vehicle's history as far back as he can go, and there's something almost Biblical about this attention to a vehicle's provenance. This summer I sat and talked with Ralph in his shop next to a 1953 Ford Jubilee. And later that summer I watched him in a tractor pull with that same tractor.
Learn more about the Williams Family Field of Dreams Tractor Pull here.
Rumble Strip is a podcast produced by Erica Heilman and distributed on the radio by Vermont Public. Learn more about the show here.
