a confession_MoSAC TPA_granny owned 5 tractors_Clarence Sehrt_ not a blood and guts guy_Bold Gold_Kevin Nadler_Ed Kamphoefner_Vernon Borgmann
Gentle readers, I have a confession to make. Sometimes, I fail to exercise my curiosity, and I walk about blindly, ignoring the amazing things to be experienced right here in our corner of the world. Yessir, that’s a pretty sweeping statement, but nevertheless, I have reached that conclusion because of what I have learned from interviewing Dennis and Jackie (Gerdiman) Nadler.
And what did I learn? Well, I learned that I’ve never paid enough attention to the family’s love of, and expertise with, antique tractors…including tractor pulls. In the past, when I got anywhere near a tractor pull, the exhaust fumes and the roar of engines made me change course and go look at blue ribbon pies (or beer) instead. I wasn’t thinking about the skill involved, nor did I contemplate how the sport could even unite families. My bad…
Anyway, my friends, I ended part 2 of this story like this:
Dennis founded an organization known as MOSAC TPA which translates to Missouri Stock Antique-Classics Tractor Pulling Association. Dennis, Kevin, Curtis, Craig, and even Jackie’s mother, Doris Bergsicker Gerdiman all participated in MOSAC events. In fact, there are even more Nadler/Gerdiman relatives involved in these events, and I’ll address that in the next installment of TILIW. So, here we go.
paulO (a phone conversation on 12/5/24): Dennis said he did this pulling thing with his sons…sounds like a good family thing.
Jackie Gerdiman Nadler: Yeah, that was a big family thing. That’s right!
pO: I guess you went too.
JN: Yeah, and my mom (Doris Bergsieker Gerdiman) pulled too. https://www.emissourian.com/obituaries/obits/doris-a-gerdiman/article_df645503-150e-50b8-9b78-ced988e19b9f.html
pO): No!
JN: (Laughing.) Yes, she did. Dennis just said she actually owned 5 tractors at one time. She was known in the Tractor Pulling Association as “Granny”.
pO: You know. I had no idea when I worked for her (interior painting) that she was into tractors.
JN: Yeah, she liked antique tractors.
pO: Oh my gosh, I wrote a story called Men, Women, and Tractors, and if I’d known that, I’d’ve (does anyone accept that contraction?) put her in the story but I didn’t know… https://www.augustamomuseum.com/post/tell-it-like-it-was-men-women-tractors
pO (in the Nadler living room 12/11/24): Tell me again about all the Gerdimans that were doing this… (tractor pulling).
JN: Well, there was my mother, Doris…and then her son, John.
pO: That’d be your brother.
JN: Right, and then John’s son, Jeremy. And then we had our daughters-in-law…well, you’ve got our sons listed here (Kevin, Curtis, Craig) …and our grandchildren, boys and girls…pull. I shouldn’t say they all pull…
Dennis Nadler: Well, they pulled some.
JN: Right. They all pulled some.
pO (in the Nadler living room 10/11/24): When did you meet Jackie?
DN: Hmmm. Well, we went to school together.
pO: Both Augusta school and the Lutheran?
DN: No, just Augusta.
pO: I don’t know if you’re the same age, or not.
DN: No, she’s 5 years younger than I am. I can’t say I really met her. I guess we really started dating as the result of going to dances.
pO: Do you remember…? I’m not trying to get you in trouble…where or when?
JN: I can tell you!
DN: It was at the Legion Hall.
JN: Nope, it was a Christmas dance at the high school.
DN: Yeah, you’re right.
pO: Well, when did you get married?
DN: September 17th, 1960. We just celebrated 64 years.
pO: Congratulations. And you went to lots of dances after that.
JN: Oh yeah, every Saturday. We very seldom missed a Saturday.
DN: That’s one thing I miss more than anything else about growing older. I don’t get to do that anymore. I’d look kinda silly walking in there with a walker…trying to dance. But I think with her help holding me up I could still dance.
JN: But I can’t either, though.
Gentle readers, Dennis, Jackie, and I continued to talk about dances and local bands. So, this seems like a good time to show you a couple photos of a local boy, Clarence Sehrt, who made the rounds with many bands, but was also the organist at the UCC Church in Femme Osage. I even showed these pictures to Dennis and Jackie in their living room. They remembered him well. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/emissourian/name/clarence-sehrt-obituary?id=17170718 I found these photos in a book from our library by Kenneth Johnson called Moonlight Serenade To City Lights.
pO: When did you have your first child?
DN: In ’62. (Kevin) Next one is in ’64. (Curtis) And Craig in ’68.
JN: Kevin…he was the main mechanic at the garage towards the end.
DN: But he didn’t want any part of taking over…keeping the business going. He didn’t want to mess with paperwork and the government, So, he’s working in Hermann now.
pO: What’s he do there?
DN: Restores tractors. He works for Dave Nelson…Agri-Crafts. https://agricrafts.com/about-us/
Criag, Curtis, Kevin, Mom, and Dad in the early 1970s.
pO: Oh. I need to ask you about the volunteer fire department. When did you get involved with that?
DN: Was that ’84?
JN: Well, you’ve got a plaque here…for so many years of service…let’s see what that says.
pO: And Kevin got involved in that too?
DN: Yeah, we went together.
pO: Did the other boys?
DN: Craig got involved in Augusta.
pO: I guess you probably found that rewarding…it felt good…
DN: I always said, I’m not a blood and guts guy…but running accidents is what we did mostly but I always said, there’s no such thing as an accident…somebody screwed up. But I didn’t care for getting in there for first aid…
JN: Yes, it says 20 years of service. That was in 2004.
pO: Then you quit in 2004?
DN: No, I’m still in the department. I’ve still got a pager and turnout gear. When Bob Struckhoff was chief, and when I shut the shop down…I wanted to give him all that stuff back…and he says, no, just keep that. We can use you during the day, if nothing else, to drive the tanker. So…I sent him my letter of retirement…but I didn’t get to retire.
pO: That’s the problem with being useful.
DN: Yeah, I guess. The training…well, I was on the fire brigade when I worked at Weldon Spring…atomic energy. I was on a rescue squad there.
pO: Do you have many grandchildren?
DN and JN: Yep!
pO: Great-grandchildren?
JN: Seven grandkids, and 9 greats.
pO: So, is that what keeps you busy now…grandchildren and such?
JN: No, going to the doctor (laughing) keeps us busy.
Gentle readers, this next segment is called Bold Gold. I was sitting in the Nadler living room again, examining a photo, when I asked:
pO: This tractor, then…make and model?
DN: I think that’s a 1945…the basic tractor there…
pO: …and it’s, uhh, what kind?
DN: That’s a John Deere B.
pO: It is a John Deere…how come it’s not green? I see it’s got the yellow wheels.
DN: It’s not green because Kevin wanted it to look like a Stag Beer can.
pO: Okay…but everybody else would know it’s a John Deere. I’d be the only one that didn’t know. (I laugh.)
DN: (Long silence.)
pO: And your front wheels are coming off the ground, correct?
DN: Yeah, he (Kevin) always said I was the first one that pulled it, that could get the front end off the ground.
pO: (Longer silence.) When did you found MoSAC? (MoSAC TPA stands for Missouri Stock Antique-Classic Tractor Pulling Association.)
DN: MoSAC was originated in January of 1990…going on 35 years.
Gentle readers and lovers of tractors, this seems like an appropriate time to bring Kevin Nadler into the conversation:
pO: Are you still seeing family members participating (in pulls)?
KN: No. It’s basically just me. Dad’s not able to; my two brothers have dropped out.
pO: And your parents’ great grandchildren? Any of them still pulling?
KN: No.
pO: So, that era is over.
KN: It’s pretty much over…I’m one of the last original founders that are still pulling.
pO: Do you go to a lot of events?
KN: We try to have 10-11each year.
pO: Are they scattered all over Missouri?
KN: Well, we have several pulls, 5 or 6, we generally do at the Wentzville VFW Post. They’ve got a track there for us, and we pull up at the Lincoln County Old Threshers in the Elsberry area…and St. Charles County Fair…and we go to Portage Des Sioux for the church picnic.
pO: And you kept statistics, so you have all this information on your family members.
KN: Well, my grandma, Doris Gerdiman, started pulling with us in 1992…at the Eureka Homecoming. We pulled down there that year. Mom’s brother (John Gerdiman) started pulling with us in 1990, the first year we started. And his boy, Jeremy, he started in our very first pull in 1990 at the Franklin County Youth Fair in Union.
pO: Can you say something about your growing up, and how you got so involved in the garage?
KN: Well, I got involved with the garage…Dad owned it, so, I just started working there. I started when I was 14…doing little things…pumping gas…setting up equipment.
pO: Did you feel lucky…or feel obligated?
KN: Oh, I felt lucky. I think it was a good experience. I was always working with Dad here.
pO: You have to be really close to him.
KN: Oh yeah. Yeah. Very close.
pO: And tell me about Bold Gold.
KN: Well, it was just a tractor we had traded in here. It had basically all stock. I did some work on it…and did things to lighten it up, and was trying to come up with a name, and since I like drinking Stag beer, that’s where the Bold Gold came from. I painted it to look like a Stag can.
Gentle readers, I often accumulate more material that I can condense into a story. There is so much more I’d like to convey to you, but sometimes a writer must move on, and I will. But before I do, I want to thank Kevin for the tour he gave me of the old garage which he still lives next door to. He also took the time for several text messages and phone calls from me.
So, am I finished? Not quite. I made a last-minute call to retired KATY RR mechanic, Ed Kamphoefner, who not only grew up on the family farm near Defiance (where Dennis was his neighbor) but also worked for over 3 years at the Defiance Garage.
pO: …you worked for Dennis after the Navy. Just tell me briefly about your Navy experience.
Ed Kamphoefner: Well, I am not a book learner, so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I got out of high school…I chose the Navy. So, I went down to St. Louis and took all their tests. And they decided that I was going to be an electrician. So, they sent me to their electrician school up in the Great Lakes. But actually, all my life…from the time I was big enough to do anything, I would…for instance, grandpa junked a lawnmower, so I get the lawnmower out of the ditch where he threw it…pulled the motor…took it all apart…put it all back together…and made it run.
pO: That’s great!
EK: …just with my own observation. I think most of the stuff we do like that, is God given. And I’ve got a son who’s probably worse than me…I mean we can almost look at something…and see how…what’s wrong with it…and just fix it.
pO That’s really amazing. What years were you in the Navy?
EK: January 1970, and I got out in January 1974.
pO: And then you went to work for the Nadlers a little while?
EK: I worked like 3 years and several months.
pO: And Dennis was living near your farm at that time.
EK: I guess he moved there long before I went into the Navy. So, we did know him. And my dad, being a farmer, had stuff done at the garage. Actually, when I came home, I didn’t know then exactly what I was going to do, and my mom said…’Well, Dennis…I think he could use some help. Why don’t you see if he will hire you.’ So, I went down there, and he did…
pO: This last episode is devoted to the family aspect, but I bet you can probably tell me family things…maybe you watched the interaction between Kevin and Dennis.
EK: Kevin was still pretty young then…I don’t think he really did anything while I was there.
Gentle, patient readers, my attempt to draw in a non-family member to shed more light on the Nadler family didn’t yield much, but it’s always a pleasure to talk with a Kamphoefner. I guess that’s the nature of my writing. There’s not much of a destination; it’s all about the journey. Now, let’s get back to Dennis.
pO: Can you tell me some of your best memories of Augusta or Defiance…or both. What warms your heart?
DN: I guess I had a real passion for that shop. I just really liked working on things like that.
pO: What about the social aspect of…interacting with all these farmers…or was that important to you?
DN: Yeah, it was…keeping in their good graces.
pO: Well, some of them would have had trouble without you, I would think.
DN: Well, they’re getting used to it.
JN: You made a lot of friends.
DN: I got to know many, many people. But that’s one thing I guess I miss about the shop a whole lot…visiting with the people.
pO: Do you ever think much about the future of Defiance?
DN: I don’t know. It’s situated in such a position that…the’93 flood opened a lot of eyes. We worked our tails off building a sandbag wall…to no avail. The river backs up, and the drainage ditch goes through Defiance, and you can’t block that off. If it doesn’t come up the drainage ditch and get you, it runs over from the bottoms. I feel like there’s not a lot of future for Defiance…to get better…unless they move the whole town like Silex did.
pO: And like Rhineland did. They got flooded so badly in ’93 that they moved up the hill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhineland,_Missouri
pO: Were you ever a hunter?
DN: Well, we used to do some bird hunting…squirrels.
pO: How about sports? Baseball?
DN: Pitching hay bales.
pO: Is there somebody you would describe as your best friend in Defiance?
DN: Well, he just died…2 weeks ago…Vernon Borgmann. When we had that tornado (December 2021), his house (at F and Stubb Road), blew away. He bought that old schoolhouse and rehabbed it. And they lived there for 60+ years.
His wife (Ollie) https://boonecountryconnection.com/obituaries/8693-ollie-esther-borgmann?highlight=WyJvbGxpZSIsImJvcmdtYW5uIl0= went to bed, and he was up yet, and then that storm comes through and blew her out…she rode on her mattress out in the field. She didn’t get killed there, but I believe she died from a heart attack…just the stress.
And he was blown out of the house. They found him in the fork of a tree that was down, and he was pretty well boogered up…legs and arms. But the real neat thing about him was…when he was in the service, he was up in Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland…and when he went to church, they gave him a little New Testament pocket bible. And they misplaced that in the house, and for years he hadn’t been able to find it. But when they got him out of that tree, that New Testament was lying right by his hip.
pO: That’s an interesting story!
Gentle readers, my own epistle draws to an end. However, some folks have suggested that these stories lack any conclusion or take-away. So, for those folks, let me offer you this: A couple weeks ago I was corresponding with a reader who said she was enjoying reading about so many Nadlers. Without hesitation, I replied that I don’t think I’ve ever met a Nadler I didn’t like.
Stay warm and curious,
paulO
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