Issue # 1: A Young Man and His Dreams

As one starts his journey in life, he also starts having dreams. We are not sure as to when they begin the dreams for wants and desires, but with a young lad named Frankie Bowles, his dreams of tractors of all sizes started as soon as he could walk.

Frankie was born November 8th, 1989 in a small town in St. Mary’s County Maryland. His father was a heavy equipment operator, plumbers helper and whatever else he chose to do. His Mom was a cook at the local seafood restaurant. He had two older brothers. His one brother, Dale, noticed how Frankie always got excited when he saw a tractor or a piece of big equipment and he started to buy Frankie toys of that sort. Frankie received his first pedal tractor for his third Christmas. He would always park it at night in its spot by his bed between his dresser. It got its wipe down and polishing along with its grease check.

As the weather changed, the tractor found its place outside in the shed. One day his Dad chose to take him to work and he rode around that day in a backhoe. He couldn’t speak fast enought trying to tell Dale about his day. He talked of the gears and how they worked the machine. His mom knew than that he was going to be like his Dad and that school was going to be a problem.

As the summer was coming to an end, Frankie found out that two doors down was a backhoe that belonged to J&W Hauling Company. Unfortunately it had been parked to being broke down. The family was ready to panic because Frankine wasn’t in his little patch of land working when Mom came out of the house from changing his little sister.

They started combing the area. They figured he wasn’t far off because he didn’t put his tractor away. He always put his tractor up before he went off on another excursion. The neighbor next door had a variety of birds in cages that they would sometimes visit so Mom went in that direction because she remembered hearing them causing a fuss while she was inside.

Mom was met by a young man holding Frankie’s hand and listening to Frankie telling him all about his dad and the day he went to work with him. The gentleman told Mrs. Bowles that he found Frankie up on the backhoe just talking away trying to move the gears. He said he was quite impressed that Frankie knew what the gears actually did, considering his age.

From that day on he could name any tractor or piece of equipment and tell you what it was for, who it was made by and a lot of other things. Frankie’s dreams had started. He was going to center his life around tractors and heavy equipment. School was going to be a lost cause.

Frankie started collecting his toy tractors and equipment. Both of his grandfathers owned tractors. Grandpa Bowles helped work a farm and Grandpa Ridgell worked a rather large garden. When a tractor started up, most likely Frankie could be found behind the wheel perched on granddaddy’s lap. At the age of seven, he was found driving on his own.

Check out every issue of Oliver Heritage for exciting interviews, articles and stories from our readers that are packed into the 56 paged, full color magazine!