John Deere Lunchbreak

Driving across New Mexico and Texas, you'll occasionally see billboards like this one, offering you a free 72oz (four and a half pound) steak... provided you can eat it all in one sitting. On our driving holiday there last year, we passed up on that kind offer of enough food to kill you, but I did bring home a memento of that wonderful 4000 mile trip across the US: this 1950 Chevrolet 3100 Pickup, in John Deere livery.

To tell the truth, I'm neither a Chev man nor a major Pickup fan, but I do like diecast cars
and this was almost the only diecast vehicle of any kind that I saw in a shop anywhere
along my 4000 mile journey. So I snapped it up as soon as I saw it. Besides, it was just
10 bucks, I love green and yellow anyway, and I wanted a diecast souvenir! I've been
told by collectors a lot more knowledgeable than me that there are hundreds of different
diecast things sold in John Deere livery, so they're not exactly rare or valuable.

Now that it's safely back home here in Sydney, Australia, I like it for itself. It's a risky business
putting opening and closing doors on a cheap 1:43 diecast model, but the maker has pulled it
off quite respectably. The whitewall tyres are tizzy, but I like them nevertheless.

Even the underside is not too shabby, either, with a genuine spare
tyre and wheel, plus the outlines of the drivetrain and engine
to be enjoyed as well – and that's a lot more detail than you usually
see in even the medium priced 1:43 scale models. So, for my
ten bucks I am now a loyal John Deere fan!

The scarcity of diecast model shops in the US is such a shame. We're blessed in Sydney to have at least three good ones that I know of, and there really is not much better fun for a diecast fan than wandering into a shop full of models and temptations and spending an hour or so deciding (or at least dreaming about) what to get next.

And so where did I score my cheap diecast souvenir? In a hamburger joint, but not just any old one. It's in the old town area in Albuquerque New Mexico, the Romero Street Grill. They also happen to make the best hamburger I ate in eight weeks and 4000 miles in the US – ask for the green chile cheeseburger (with a John Deere pickup on the side). The link I posted to it is a review which is only so-so about the place, but if you're ever in Albuquerque, give them a try.

Finally, to finish off this very Texan, country-style posting, here's the only song I know about John Deere, 'The John Deere Tractor Song', sung by the guy who wrote it, the legendary Don Walser, the rolling stone from Texas.