Tag Archives: Ariens tillers

My Folks #20 – 29th St #4 – Business Promotions

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The 1950 Statewide article (see last post, My Folks #20) was not the only promotion my folks dreamt up to promote their budding rental business. 

My sisters and I well remember throwing saltwater taffy from one of our trailers promoting Arians Tillers while dad slowly drove one of our Ford tractors along the streets of Boise. It was a warm day and I remember all the kids scurrying for candy as eagerly as I had scurried a year before when watching the 4th of July Parade. Or was it a parade promoting the Western Idaho Fair?

Our displays at the Western Idaho State Fairs would have been in the early 1950s. For several years mom and dad drove a sturdy stake in the ground so the largest of our tillers would forever run in a circle digging the earth into perfect bedding soil.

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A box of glass endlessly kept water from a circling Rain Bird sprinkler from spraying the crowd. Trailers and tractors and implements showed the variety of useful machines that my folks made available to rent or buy. Tables full of sprinkler heads and stands kept one or both of my parents busy demonstrating just how versatile Rain Birds are with their adjustable spray patterns. I have no idea how many sprinklers left that fair on their way to new homes. 

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Meanwhile my older sister Vicky was trusted with some change to take my younger sister and I discovering the Fair. That ground, at the corner of Fairview and Orchard, is now a hole in the ground carrying the 184 freeway Connector into Boise. Commercial Tire and KTVB studios now occupy the Fairview Avenue side of the site. PBS Channel 4 now operates out of the Orchard Avenue corner of the site. 

To this day, having a Pronto Pup with lots of mustard remains an absolute necessity for my Fair visits. Some of the rides Vicky talked us into? I have long since been passing them by.

My Folks #19 – 29th St #3 – Our Business

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By 1950 my folks had secured retail dealerships for Rain Bird sprinklers and Arians tillers. A lot of sprinklers moved through our garage while some Ariens tillers stuck around to be rented again and again. We even had special trailers for getting them to the job site. 

For three years the trailers and tillers and tractor all behaved themselves by staying on the graveled northern half of our property. But in 1950 we kids watched our folks line things up in front of our garage doors while even spilling some over onto the lawn. The lawn was our play place! I was five when my folks started acting funny.

Years later I came across evidence of how this strange behavior came to live as snippets in my memory. 

Thank goodness my folks saved the photos this reporter took of our property as well as copies of his article. It sure gives insight to my mother’s busy life and my dad’s sensitive heart. Here is a link to  a PDF that will open for easy reading or downloading.

OPEN ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE