BOB & KAY TIX

Bob Tix got started in garden tractor pulling in 1985 when our church (St. Mary's in New Trier) had a pull for a fall fund raiser. Bob wanted to see how our tractor "Tweety Bird" would do. So Teresa (our daughter and driver) and Bob decided they would put wheelie bars on and take it up to pull. She won First Place so needless to say, the next summer when there was a pull, they would take the mower deck off and clean it up and go to the pulls.

We started to pull with the Peine Pullers from New Trier. About a year later Sneaky Pete got started pulling and we were also going to his pulls. In 1989, Susie (our youngest daughter) wanted to pull, but wanted her own tractor. So Dad found her a tractor "$100 Special" for the small class. Teresa  got married in 1990 and now wasn't available to drive all the time, so Bob finally got to drive "Tweety Bird". Now he was really into pulling and after a few years of the easy classes, Sneaky talked him into getting a tractor with more power than just Off-The-Lawn classes. So about 1995, he built "LocoMotion" for the Mod Stock class which is now Stock Altered class. Later in 1999 he wanted another tractor, so he bought "Outlaw" and built it for the Sports Stock class. But 4 tractors wasn't enough and the "deal of a lifetime" came along and he bought "Blown Wages" in 2001 and he built that one for the Pro/Super Stock class.

When Susie went off to college, she didn't have time to go to all the pulls. Then she got married, started a family and there was no more time for pulling.  About this time, the class became a kid's class, so now Bob has different drivers, usually someone from the club who has a child who wants to drive, but the family doesn't have an extra tractor for the child to drive. What a joy to see these kids driving and enjoying the sport, especially watching them win their first trophy! Now our grandson, Kyle Beissel is driving the tractor "Tweety Bird" his mom and grandpa started out with.

Kay Tix got started helping Carol with the paper work at the pulls about 1996. She now does the points for the Club plus helping with registration and writing distances down at the pulls. This is a hobby that was started as a family when our 2 youngest daughters were pulling and continues to this day for us.

We have 4 daughters, 4 son-in-laws, and 9 grandchildren. Bob retired in December, 2001, and Kay retired in June, 2002. We enjoy our time camping when not at pulls and we do some traveling in the fall and the winter. We have met many wonderful people at the pulls and made lots of friends. Hope to see you this summer!