Posted by Clint Dixon [216.248.73.1] on Monday, July 22, 2013 at 12:50:05 :
In Reply to: How old were you when posted by Glen of Idaho [12.213.224.36] on Sunday, July 21, 2013 at 22:34:39 :
Grandpa sold the farm in 1966 and my folks and I had already moved off it a year earlier when I was about 5 years old. Prior to that, I was riding on the tractors with Grandpa every day - plowing, disking, planting, and cultivating - sitting on the front edge of the seat with his left hand around my midsection. I didn't like the chaff from the corn picker and the combine required too much attention, so my time riding during harvest was limited.
By the time I was 4 or so, Grandpa was having me drive the Ford 9N through the gate while pulling the water wagon to the hog lot. He would step off the rear of the moving tractor, open the gate for me to pass through, close the gate and step back on the tractor. (The tractor had a granny gear, the 3-point was disabled with the drawbar locked in place, and the tractor had a manure loader on it so there were plenty of places to hold onto.) It took me years to realize that he had been doing this for years without me, but I sure felt like I was really helping by driving that tractor for Grandpa.
Then there was the time just before he sold the farm when he had both the truck and tractor at a farm down the road several miles. By then I was steering by myself, so he put me on the tractor and got it going as I could not reach the pedals. He followed in the truck, pulling ahead at all the intersections on the gravel roads to flag down traffic and/or climb back into the tractor seat behind me to stop it if needed. There was one section corner that I successfully navigated through as he blocked the road of traffic.
Dad was not too happy when he came home from work and found out about the adventure. It remains one of my best memories from childhood. Knowing the year he sold the farm, I could not have been older than 5 at the time.
Junior