When I was about 7 or 8 my job was to work ground with a disk and then later with a spring tooth drag while my dad planted. I drove the IH 400. Naturally it didn't have power steering and the clutch had an awesome spring. I wasn't big enough to depress the clutch with my foot and couldn't steer it while sitting down. I would grab the steering wheel and pull myself forward to depress the clutch. When I wanted to release the clutch, I just let go of the steering wheel and slid back in the seat. The steering wheel shaft was horizontal, so I stood up to steer and used my entire body and hip to turn the steering wheel. So I never turned the wheel while stopping and starting and needed some room to accomplish this. My mother would stare out the kitchen window and watch everytime I turned around next to the ditch. The north ed of the farm bordered against a 15 ft. deep ditch.

About that age, I also drove the JD 55 combine. I couldn't figure out the vertical H shift pattern, so I would put the clutch in, Dad would put it in gear, he would run down the ladder and get to the truck when we drove down the lane back to the buildings. The lane had an electric fence on both sides giving me about 2 foot of clearance each side. When we got back to the barn, I'd hold the clutch in until dad got it out of gear. If you shut it off, it usually wouldn't start again without jumpers. It had a Hercules engine that was temperamental.

At about 10 years old, my job was to cultivate all the corn. My dad cultivated the sugar beets and beans. We each had IH super "C's". That worked out great. I got out of hoeing! Learned to drive straight and near objects at an early age.

When I was about 10-11, I got to drive the combine on the road while my dad followed in the truck from farm to farm. We had narrow roads and a wide header meaning that you had to drop the right side partially down the ditch when meeting cars. The last leg going toward home had that 15 ft. ditch. Once I got down too far with the right front and almost rolled it in, it kinda sucked me further down the ditch. I over corrected and with rear wheel steering the rear tires got more than half way down. That scared me bad that day!

When I was 14, got my farm drivers license allowing me to drive in the daylight hours between farms.

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