My First Solo on a Tractor

As well as my Grandfather’s farm and others that I stayed on, my Uncle and Aunt had a farm about 25 plus miles away. As all the area farms in that era, it was a mixed farm. Mixed farming meaning that you raised all types of livestock, horse, chickens, geese, etc. as well as cultivating and growing grain, hay fields, etc. With the exception of salt, sugar and flour (guess some even milled the flour) most farmers were self sufficient. I actually did many of my ‘firsts’ on this farm. Both my Uncle and Aunt having passed away (Bless their souls) I can even relate some of these events that I had never admitted to them. Don’t get the wrong idea, nothing real bad – but things that would have upset my Uncle. My first solo tractor is not one of the ‘secret’ ones, as it was my Uncle that put me through the excruciating pain. The farm house sat a long way from the country road that passed in front, and there were fields on either side of the long driveway. When working the land, if the weather was nice, and no repairs were needed, often my Uncle would leave the tractor in the field for the night, then return the next morning to continue plowing, seeding, mowing, whatever the task was. After leaving the tractor one night, the next morning my Uncle took his car down the long driveway to finish up the field work. My cousin and I had walked down with his lunch, but he was just finishing up and was ready to return to the house. “Davie, do you want to drive the tractor back?” Yes – yes – yes!! I get to drive the tractor – Yahoo – finally, after all I was all of 8 years old. The tractor was a case with tip-toe* front wheels. My Uncle got me partially seated, partially standing at the steering wheel of the tractor. He then put it in the lowest gear it had, and opened the throttle to ‘one’ and let out the clutch – he then jumped off and got in his car and drove to the house. There I was – driving my first tractor at the break-neck speed of perhaps ½ mile per hour. Look disappointment up in the dictionary – you will see a picture of a kid steering a case tractor (with tip-toe* front wheels) going soooo slow that the worms on the ground are passing him. It took forever to finally arrive at the house, where my Uncle jumped on the tractor and stopped it. I have to give him credit, he did let me drive the tractor – many would not have. But ½ mile per hour – come on… my cousin thought it was very funny!! I would get even with her, just wait and see.

*tip toe – I am not sure what the correct name for this type front axle on a tractor is. We used to call them ‘tip toe’ which is when the front tires are only inches apart. This type of configuration was good for driving down rows of garden, with the front wheels and each back wheel straddling the rows. What benefit it had on a prairie farm, I am not sure, as on a side hill they had a far easier chance of tipping over than a tractor with a wide wheel base at the front.