HOT PURSUIT

He’s certainly no stranger to old tractors, but Ron Janning came up with a new twist to celebrate the Fourth of July in Blooming Prairie.

Janning decided to join in the Old Fashioned Fourth by utilizing one of his collector tractors, a 1962 Farmall 460, to pull a wagon with about 35 family members all paying tribute to veterans who have served our country.

He has been involved in the Fourth of July for many years in Blooming Prairie, but this was the first time with doing a veterans tribute in the parade.

The Janning crew included three children, 12 grandchildren and about as many great-grand children, some as young as a baby and 2 years old. “I think it’s 12 or 13 great-grand kids. You can write it in there… Ron just can’t count,” he said with a chuckle.

For Janning, past wars have been personal. He has had two brothers-in-law die from complications of medical problems developed from serving in the Vietnam War. He also had many family members who served in the Civil War.

Janning has learned more about the Civil War and what happened to people who served in that war. “The Civil War was pretty horrendous, and it just bothers me a lot,” he said.

He also has a family member who basically has isolated himself from everyone after serving in Vietnam. “He doesn’t like to be around people much… it affected him badly,” Janning said. “I don’t know what they all seen, but it was bad.”

Janning credits his daughters, Naomi Jirele and Anissa Disher, for coming up with the idea of doing a special veterans salute. He said they had been talking about it for several months, and Naomi finally pushed on it to get it done.

Naomi and Anissa made the signs and decorations for the trailer, which was made by Dennis Ringhofer.

“Just to salute them,” Janning said of being in the parade. “We can go a long time with a lot of reasons for being in the parade.”

As the Jannings wound their way through the mile plus parade route, they swelled with pride and became appreciative of the reaction they received from parade goers.

“People really appreciated what we did. Everyone was putting thumbs up and saluted us,” he said. “It makes you feel really good.”

Riding in the parade came with only a minor glitch.

“We bought a lot of candy, but we ran out of it,” Janning said.

But the Jannings don’t want to be remembered for the candy, but rather the family’s desire to salute veterans and hold them in highest esteem.

And they hope to do the same again in the future.

“If everyone hangs together, we’ll be back at it next year,” he said.

Janning, who is 84, keeps active while still farming and running a seed business.

It is certainly commendable that the Jannings took the time to step away from a holiday celebration to not focus on themselves but rather salute our great American war heroes.

After all, our veterans are one of the major reasons we’re able to go in hot pursuit of celebrating our freedoms and independence every year.