Childhood farm memory

Its not really tractor related,,but it is Farm related,cant sleep well tonight,,so felt like sharing this story.
I don't know why,but this memory popped in my head.I was about 12 years old. My dad borrowed an old chevy flatbed from my uncle.The motor blew up while my dad was driving it to Pa.My uncle saw a 1952 chevy car for sale for 15 dollars.It was owned by a little old lady.She had an accident and the front fender was crushed into the wheel.He bought the car to the farm where I grew up on in NJ. The plan was to swap the motor into the truck. When it arrived home my brother cut the bent fender off .At 15 my brother was already eager mechanic.He was going to swap the motor in the winter time with my uncle,when he got less busy. It was late spring early summer.Since my brother already had an old car to drive around the fields,my uncle said to me,,this is a good car for Larry to drive around a little this summer,and learn how to drive.Talk about a happy kid! Well,,,that summer,,I had my brother modify it a bit,hacked the other front fender off,,then,some friends and I painted some custom numbers and graphics on it,,and I learned how to drive a three on the tree,,,and did I drive,,any where and every where on the farm,,and a round track near the hedgerow and around the field.Nobody really noticed until my uncle came one late fall day.He laughed,,and said you put more miles on that car in a summer that the little old lady did the whole life of the car!Then he opened the hood,,looked at the dust that the little old 1952 chevy had endured that summer. He smiled and and,,you know,this motor is a little small for the big truck,,why dont you just keep the car Larry.It did work out well.at the time my brother was going to the vo tech high school for auto mechanics.As a project in school he rebuilt a newer 6 cyld chevy motor,,He eventually put that motor in the old flatbed.And I got to run the little 1952 chevy a lot more!

My dad traded a Fox Hound for a 1946 Jeep pickup about 1964 I'd of been about 12 years old,I drove that thing everywhere and could drive it on the road since it was a farm
use vehicle didn't need tags and I didn't need a license.We used that old truck for years to feed cattle,fence and about anything else you could imagine.

We had many old vehicles on the farm. Over 200 acres of land to run on, plus a logging company cut thru the length of the mountain, which ajoined the farm. They set up a sawmill on the top of the mountain, and another at the bottom. then they moved them as needed. this left a lot of haul roads, which we had access to. We drove all over the area, none of it neding a drivers license. Neighborhood guys had old vehicles too. We'd spend Sunday afternons driving all over the area. All that driving practice made it easy to pass my driving test, years later.
Larry, Thanks for stirring up the old memories.

First car that I ever drove was a early 60's Falcon , three on the tree, I was around 10 . Next my buddy and I got a 63 VW , and cut the body off. We found a extra set of wheels for it , knocked the tires off , and welded the rims together. Put the tires back on and had dual rear tires . This gave the old bug much more float over snow . We even tried skies on the front ,but didn't work too good .Our folks didn't much like us rippimg around the farm on this thing , but the frozen lake was fair game . And we could cross thelake and go into town , another big plus when you are in your early teens .

Great story, Larry.

I learned to drive in my Dad's old stick-shift Ford pickup on the farm too. Up and down the field lane, all around the pasture, down the driveway... then perfect your backing skills by backing all the way back to the house.

It was fun! Sometimes seems like it was just yesterday... sometimes seems like a million years ago.

Larry,
I too grew up on a farm. Before I was old enough to go to school, I was driving and riding a motorcycle.

We had an army surplus Jeep. The front window would fold down on the hood. I was 5 when I learned to drive.

Back then farmers had large families, cheap help. I was he youngest boy, so I was doing the easy work, driving.

First thing I ever drove on my own was a jd 3020 power shift with a narrow front end. I was about 8 or 9 years old. Learned how to drive a stick shift on my dads 67 Ford 250 wood hauler. 4 speed truck, you could go through all 4 gears without even touching the gas.

Great story Larry, thanks for posting. One more thought, wasn't great to have an "Uncle"?
Wish you well.
Jim B from West PA

When I was 13 years old dad had a 46 International pickup four speed. One Sunday was in town at Grandmas house. Uncle need some help so dad told me what side streets to take out of town, one mile of US highway and 5 miles of gravel road. I was a big boy now.

On the ranch we worked on. There was always a pile of hay beside the barn in the winter time. Faced the sun. When ever I was feeling bad or just wanted to get warm. I would sleep in the hay. Best sleep I ever had.

My first car was a 1954 Ford sedan. One day I thought I was a race car driver. Rolled it in front of dad in the field he was plowing. After he got me out found out I was ok. He beat my butt for scaring him. All the way to the house. Then turned me over to mom who gave me another butt whipping.

When I was a kid dad had a 49 IH KB1 with three on the tree. When I was 8 or 9 I was riding in this pickup in the pasture with dad. Dad stopped to open a gate and told me to drive the pickup through after he opened it. He instructed me to "push this pedal on the left down, pull this lever under the steering wheel back and down, push down a little on this other pedal on the right, let the left pedal out slowly and drive through the gate opening. When you want to stop push the left pedal down and put this lever back up into neutral". When the time came to go I pushed in the clutch like I should have but I pulled the shift lever back and pushed it UP into reverse. When I let the clutch out I went flying backward with dad running after me waving his arms. I only went twenty feet or so till I pushed the clutch back in, put it in low gear and drove through the gate opening without any more problems. I can only imagine how fast dad's heart was beating! There was no muffler on this pickup so there is no need to explain how this episode sounded! LOL

Besides the JD 40C the first thing I remember driving was the 6x6 in the picture around the mill yard, then the 43 willys army jeep in the fields around home(learned to shift on that) and my cousins Model A Ford field vehicle, then Dads 55 chevy pickup in the fields.

I had been driving the hay truck (48 Cornbinder one ton) in the fields for several years, but I'll never forget the day dad pulled the '56 VW over about a half mile from home and told me to "take 'er on in". I was 12, I think. Took a few tries before I was shifting the 4 speed right.

We lived on gravel roads which were never patrolled by the Sheriff because of the dust, so the next year when I got a summer job on a neighboring farm, I could drive to work! And between the fields to change irrigation pipes. Used a '49 Chev pickup, mostly.

When I took my drivers license test (in the same VW), I guess I didn't have the beginning driver nervousness that the examiner was used to, because he actually had me do a few things that surprised me, like starting from a stop sign on an incline so I had to "heel and toe" the brake and gas. After we got finished, he said "You passed the test, so you won't be in trouble for answering my question, but I'm just curious, how long have you been driving?" I told him the story, and he just laughed and said "I figured you were a farm kid- the town kids don't get the chance to do that stuff." He also admitted that starting on an incline wasn't part of the test- he just wanted to see if I could do it.

Our farm was 250 acres half wooded and 110 tillable. At 15 my first truck was a 70 F100 with 3 on the tree. Truck was a rust bucket and not even 10 years old and had a 351 Windsor some one had stuck in there. It had headers so thought that was cool now I'm irritated if I have an exhaust leak. lol I went all over the farm with old truck and was only 2WD. My 4WD F250 work truck gets off the pavement and have to put it in 4wd.

When I was about 12, I was hauling grain to an elevator a mile and a half from our farm with an old Model T Ford farm truck.

Once I stopped at the gas pump at the elevator and asked for 5 gallons of gas. The elevator guy said it would be simpler to just put a dollar's worth in. Gas was 19 cents per gallon, and 5 gallons would have been 95 cents. He would have had to get me a nickel in change.

My Dad had a 51 Chevy pu on its last leg that he gave up on and said I could have.It only ran a couple more times and locked up. I was ten. My uncle had a minor junkyard out back and gave me a motor. It took me 2 years to do the swap, worrying who ever would listen as to what to do next. My brother,now 9 went all over the neighbors farms prompting calls to my folks about out speed and dust. I still run into folks who say their first driving experience was in that old chevy. I have still have one...you guessed it.

This isn't an actual farming memory. My maternal Grandaddy would take me and my baby sister (17 months younger) to the store and let us get get Sundrops to drink, saying "don't tell your Mama!" Then we'd go fishing at one of the farm ponds. There was playing in the hay lofts, giving the old Charlais (sp.) bull a good head scratching on the wide forehead he had! Too many to list, but I did spend many an hour pulling a silage wagon to the silo and blowing it up into the silo.

My first car was a 46 Ford Coupe. I never left the farm with it. It had to be coasted to start. I parked it on a hill above our water tank. One time I pushed it and I didn't get in fast enough. It was heading for our wood water tank. I was running along side of it. I managed to get it turned enough before it hit the tank. That bad memory I will never forget. Talk about being scared. Behind our farm it was open for miles, we called it the mesa. I learned a lot about driving just doing crazy things, learning what a car can, and can't do. Now it's all solid houses. I miss those days, didn't have a lot of money, but had a lot of fun. I had a lot of old cars, most are collector cars now, wish I had kept a few of them. Back then they were just old cars. Stan

When I was about ten years old an older kid had some kind of British car like an Anglia and he burned a figure eight track into the woods. He would give the younger kids rides around his track. That was fun . When I told my mom all she said was " that's nice" . No seat belts or helmets or anything.

I had a mini bike growing up but my wife wouldn't let our sons have them figuring (probably correctly) they had already broken enough bones with bicycles. By 13 or so the older ones had field trucks. They were safer ripping around the stubble fields with bad brakes than at the mall. The youngest boy discovered girls younger and never drove around the farm much. Years later I had 2 different landlords asking if I would mind leaving a little extra space around the edge of the front field for their kids to tear around on dirt bikes or go karts. I had no trouble leaving 2 rows unplanted for them. The younger son of mine that didn't care about cars is the one that turned his mothers hair white.

Freshman class in high school, every other person in the class took driver's ed. Superintendent wouldn't let me take it. He said it would be a waste of time cause he knew I had been driving the 4 years he had lived there.

Lots of good memories from living on a farm.

We had a black 51 Chevy. I was 5 years old and will never forget sitting inside during a rain storm waiting for it to pass (because you remember in those days big puddles were not your friend). When the motor was idling the vacuum powered wipers would slow way down and speed up when my father gave it gas.

I'm not sure what the model was, they called the little blue diesel, or the British diesel, and that was not necessarily a term of endearment from my dad. I was about 10 so this was 61 when I was given the chore of running water furrows in the cotton and bean fields. That's how I learned to drive. Then at 14 you could get your learners permit in Miss. I bought a 57 chevy 4 door, 265, automatic as I remember. 420 dollars