Buggy for sale

By definition, the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association is focused on gas-fueled items.
But that’s not always the case.
Take Tom Hunt, a visitor to this week’s Tri-State Swap and Sell Meet.
He’s been a tractor collector, having owned nearly 20 John Deeres at one time.
He’s recently shifted from that interest to racecars.
He’s even had a couple of biplanes.
But on display at the meet Thursday he had simpler form of transportation — a doctor’s top buggy.
It’s the type of horse-drawn buggy doctors used to ride in — wide open in front with a top and sides that will fold down, just like a convertible car.
“They were like young people,” said Hunt, “wanted to put the top down on a nice afternoon and cruise, ya know. Clippity clop.”
The 69-year-old from Franklin, Ohio, which is south of Dayton along Interstate 75, bought the buggy at an auction a little less than a decade ago. He has a few horses, and one was tasked with pulling the buggy around his property mostly as a fun activity for his grandchildren.
After that horse was sidelined, and later put down, because of arthritis, the buggy became more of a decorative piece. During the lead-up to Halloween, his family would surround the buggy with corn stalks, pumpkins and ghosts.
But with the five grandkids moved to Texas and the need to clear some room for other treasures, he’s ready to sell.
“I’m trying to get room in the barn,” said Hunt, who lives in a 200-year-old brick farmhouse on 10 acres, noting that he has also owned a couple of enclosed buggies as well as a doctor’s-top sleigh. “I might as well let somebody have it that will use it.”
Besides, he’s moved on to another collecting focus — racecars.
Hunt, who arrived at the swap meet early Thursday but had to leave by that evening in order to prepare for his son’s wedding this weekend, now owns a pair. One is a 1974 Vega funny car that is no longer safe to race. The other is a 1960s-era front-engine dragster.
The new hobby circles back to his childhood. He was a racing fan then, but got into other things as he grew older.
Born and raised in Frenchburg, Kentucky, about 50 miles east of Lexington in Daniel Boone National Forest, he moved to Ohio in 1970. He didn’t have much then — “I couldn’t spell dragster, much less … afford one,” he says — but built a life and eventually a variety of collections thanks to a career at Cincinnati Gas and Electric.
“I never had anything when I was growing up,” said Hunt, who has also collected gristmills. “After I got older, I wanted everything.”
His wife has warned him that if he dies before her, her first call will be to the auctioneer. The undertaker can wait.
So he’s been in the process of offloading some of his treasures while he still can.
“I’m selling the stuff,” he said, “and I’m going to have fun with the money.
“I just blow it. I’m like a kid.”