International farm truck

Though I’m a lifelong Hoosier and have lived in Indianapolis for 16 years, I’ve been to the Indiana State Fair exactly twice. I always figured the fair was mostly about the midway, and rides just aren’t my thing. But I’m always looking for fun things for my sons and I to do, so we made our first fair trip a couple years ago. I took them last year, too, for a little fun before school started again.

Turns out I like to eat fair food and see the animals and the vintage farm equipment. I had a lot of fun photographing the old tractors and trucks. While I love classic cars and can tell you the year, make, and model of almost any car made after World War II through about 1980, I can’t do the same for trucks. Their styling didn’t change enough from year to year. So I have no idea how old this old International farm truck is. But I liked its lines enough to move in close with my camera.

I can just imagine this truck, which looks like it still works for a living, driving down the perfect gravel road I photographed a few years ago.


Comments

15 responses to “Captured: International farm truck”

  1. Tori Nelson Avatar

    You got me with this photo! As a southern girl, there is hardly a more beautiful thing in this world than a truck that looks like it’s earned its keep!

    1. Jim Avatar

      Glad to be of service! Since I wrote this, I found a photo of the same truck I took on my previous visit to the fair. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/4425448179/.

  2. vanilla Avatar

    Grill work and headlight placement suggest 1939. But don’t take that to the bank, I’m a long way down the road from the day.

    (I think by ’41 the lights were embedded in the fender. Maybe.)

    1. Jim Avatar

      I typed “1939 International truck” into Google, and by golly, I got a whole slew of trucks with this front end. Good call!!

  3. Dave Fancher Avatar

    IH made some good trucks and equipment. In many ways their products such as the Scout were ahead of their time.

    1. Jim Avatar

      Yeah, it’s too bad they got out of the consumer truck business.

  4. tanner24 Avatar

    I’m neither a car or truck enthusiast, but stopped by a local classic car show last summer with camera in hand. I came home with nearly 300 photos to sift through. The lines, the colors, the characters who love these cars and trucks. What a feast for the eyes! I was pretty amazed by it all and plan on dropping in again next summer.

    1. Jim Avatar

      I do the same thing at an annual classic-car auction held here. I like to get in close and photograph details of the automobiles.

      67 Plymouth Belvedere GTX

    2. Jim Avatar

      And now that I posted that, it occurs to me I can’t use it in a forthcoming Captured feature! Oh well.

  5. Todd Pack Avatar

    I want a vintage tractor. I don’t live on a farm, and I wouldn’t have any place to park it, but I want one.

    1. Jim Avatar

      A buddy of mine wanted a vintage tractor too, so he bought a farm so he could have one!

  6. Rama Sarma Avatar
    Rama Sarma

    South Bend, Michigan, Notre Dame and Hickory are some of the images invoked by the mention of Hoosier.

    1. Jim Avatar

      I was born and raised in South Bend! When I was a child, if you walked up the hill to the top of the street, you could see Notre Dame’s golden dome.

  7. Scott Palmer Avatar

    Pretty cool! But I hope you can post some more of the photos you took.

    I went to the State Fair last year because one of my friends was displaying her leather work (belts, sculptures, etc. — really amazing stuff). I spent most of the day walking around the fairgrounds while she sat at her display table. It was nice. I wouldn’t want to do it every year, but I hadn’t been since I was a kid and it was fun to go back.

    1. Jim Avatar

      If you click the image above, you’ll go to Flickr, where you can browse the other photos I’ve posted from this day at the fair!

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