Oh, that first time.....!!!!! Think back, WAY back in some cases, to the very first time you can remember riding on a tractor. Who was driving? What were you doing? And what about the first time you ever drove a tractor (with no help). And finally, what was the first real work you ever did with a tractor?
I have pictures of me that I understand were taken when I was about 3. I was on dads lap, sitting on his NEW 8N Ford. We were using it's manure loader to pick up gravel from a creek bed on the farm. The gravel went on the driveway. My first real memory of riding on the tractor was doing the same exact thing, but this was a few years later. I was about 5 or 6 then.
The first time I drove a tractor by myself was in August of 1957 I had just turned 10 years old. Dad bought a brand new Massey Ferguson 50. (I still own it) The dealer delivered it. Dad told me to "put 'er in the barn". This was one of the very first tractors to carry the Massey Ferguson name. (Was Massey Harris and Ferguson as separate brands just weeks prior)
My first time working a tractor by myself was in the fall of 1957. Dad was away on business. He was trying to get a hayfield plowed, disced, and re-seeded. Between his business and the weather, nothing was getting done. I had spent time with him while he was plowing, and I knew enough to finish the field. Dad called home one afternoon. He talked with mom for a while, then she put me on the phone. Dad asked me if I'd "mind" getting the tractor out the next day and finishing the plowing. I didn't sleep that night! I do believe that was the first time in my life I actually got up on my own, before daylight, and started working. I was finishing up when dad pulled in the drive. Talk about proud! (Both of us)
Growing up a "farm kid" in the 1940's & 1950's may not seem very glamorous to some, but I wouldn't trade those memories for a million bucks.
FWJ....great, great story. You moved me emotionally with that one. I can't remember the first time working a tractor.....because we always had them around and we just did it. However I do remember distinctly how proud I was when I was strong enough to grab the fly wheel of my Dad's John Deere A, and spin it hard enough to start the thing.
I can remember 'stumpin' on my Uncles place...one day as I watched that IH almost came over on itself...was happy to be diggin on the stump at that moment!
You'll notice our experiences involve the whole being, physically active, responsible, happy...unlike todays youth with the twitchy thumbs and ....
JD 2520 w/46bh, 200cx loader, meyers 6ft plow, KingkutterII 5' 3pt tiller
jd 425 w/54"mmm& 54"plow
NRA Benefactor Life Member
That's a great story FWJ!!!Originally Posted by Farmwithjunk
.It's nice that you still have that Massey!!! ... I've told you this before, You should write a book about farming, older equipment, restoring old equipment, etc... etc...
They sell books at TSC about farming with older equipment, and books how to farm and "PLOW"... They also have books all about tractors, and a lot more.. I've looked through some before in the store, and mostly just to look at the pictures... What you just told is very interesting and great info..Priceless!!!
My "Great-Grandfather" owned a little country store, and my Grandfather helped in the store after he got home from working in the coalmines... They had a very large garden out behind the store.. They sold everything they grew in the store, and had just about every kind of vegetable, and sold hay & feed.
One vegetable that they sold A LOT and grew A LOT of was "Marglobe Tomatoes.".. People would come from "all over just to buy the tomatoes."... The only tractors that my Great-G- Father had was a 1950 John Deere B, and a 1959 John Deere 435.
The only age I can remember when I first drove the JD 435 was 12 years old, and I remember driving the tractor pulling a hay wagon when I was 15... I drove the tractor and loaded the hay myself, and then took the hay to the barn to put up... I have some old pictures of me standing up beside my Great-G-Father while he plowed the ground..(But if it wasn't for the pics, I wouldn't remember)... I have a lot of old pics of the store and me and my Great-G-Father & Grandfather sitting on a bench drinking a bottle of pop.
Both of them lived to be in their upper 90's... After they died my dad and other family members never kept the store going... My dad started working on the railroad when he turned 18, and no one had time for the store... The tractors set for a long time in the barn, and my family sold them in the 80s... I really wish I had the tractors.. My dad really wasn't interested in tractors because of his job.
He tells me all the time that I get this tractor stuff from my Grandfathers.
"You'll notice our experiences involve the whole being, physically active, responsible, happy..."
Unfortunately our life experiences, our ingrained sense of what is "right", and our appreciation of hard work and the outdoors is not reflected by later generations.
I "discovered" the outdoors early in life and never fully "recovered". Thanks for sharing.
PS: My first tractor- Ford 1100 almost 30 years ago. I learned a lot and drove a few more tractors over the years.
I'm a city boy. No tractors during my youth. First tractor I was on, drove, was the small GT, a 1970 Bolens 1257, that was left at the house when we bought in 71.
Remember when the boys were growing up and got to ride on the Bolens while dad was mowing. Granddaughter got exposed much sooner ~2 yrs old. That summer she could hardly wait to get to grandma and grandpa's house. As soon as she got out of the car she'd head to the barn saying tractor. She would do her best to climb up but was too small. Once she got in the seat the first thing she'd go for was the horn. For some reason the horn was the thing that got her excited. After having her fill of the horn, she'd start to tackle every other knob and lever on the tractor.
Practice makes perfect: After many decade of hard work and practice, it now takes almost no effort to get tired.
Ray Bream - May the most you wish for be the least you get, - BUT work for it.
1970 Bolens 1257 w/tiller
2003 Cub 3204 48" deck
Yanmar Fx24D
RSB 1300 Yanmar tiller
Us newcomers (or would that be latecomers?) to tractors in adulthood can only relate through similar kinds of childhood memories relating to other youthful "thrills". In my case, my father's friend's Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle affected my entire life. I can still remember that first amazing ride he took me on one fabulous night. It put the motorcycling bug in me and it never left. I've owned six motorcycles since that first ride... the last one of which still sits in my garage... even though I am now too old, blind, decrepit and senile to ride it safely.
I still can't bring myself to sell it. Not yet anyway.
Similarly, I still have a perfectly vivid memory of my father taking me snowplowing as a child in his nifty 4WD Jeep. This was over 50 years ago and I can still feel the excitement like it was yesterday.
So I know well of that which you speak...
Dougster™
Not wanting to take this thread too off topic but here is another person that has a thing for the Vincent Black Shadow. Their engine was everything that HD could have ever dreamed of being.... In my case, my father's friend's Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle affected my entire life. I can still remember that first amazing ride he took me on one fabulous night. It put the motorcycling bug in me and it never left. ....
Dougster™
Practice makes perfect: After many decade of hard work and practice, it now takes almost no effort to get tired.
Ray Bream - May the most you wish for be the least you get, - BUT work for it.
1970 Bolens 1257 w/tiller
2003 Cub 3204 48" deck
Yanmar Fx24D
RSB 1300 Yanmar tiller
It was an amazingly fast and impressive machine back in the early 50's. You can't even begin to imagine the impression it made on little boy Dougster™.
By today's super-sporty bike standards, it's probably just considered another slow relic or curiosity... but WOW!!! In it's day it was absolutely the cat's meow!!!
Dougster™
p.s., Mickey - We must stop this. We are showing our old ages again.-d
FWJ....your story has had me thinking all day, reflecting on my Daddy, whose birthday would have been tomorrow. He went home to Heaven in July 2009. I have been reflecting on the many things he taught me and all of those "first times." We grew up being expected to know how to do things....like drive a tractor, drive a car, drive a truck. There was no "training time." You just were expected to do it.
My Daddy had the garbage service in a town around here. During the summer we were expected to go with him and work along side of his hired hands. I remember one morning my Dad hollered at me and said "get in and drive!" I was about 11 years old. I had never driven that truck in my life, but I did because he wanted me to, and expected me to do it.
Another time that same summer, one of the trucks had broken down at the garbage dump. He threw a short chain in the back of his pickup and told me to get in....and off to the dump we went. I of course was thinking that one of his hired men would be waiting for us at the dump.....NOPE. We got there and he backed his pickup up to the truck, and as he jumped out said...."get in the truck." GULP!!! I could barely see over the dash board of that truck. As he walked back to his pickup he turned and said..."don't let the chain go slack," and off we went.
I did let the chain go slack and he motioned for me to stop and pull over. He got out of his pickup and walked back to the truck. He said, "I told you to not let the chain go slack....don't do it again." I didn't, but the brakes on the truck were a bit hot when we got to the shop.....
Like you, I remember the pride I felt because he expected me to do something I had not done before. He expected me to be able to do it because I was his son. That is the "first time" I vividly remember.
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