[AT] Hottest tractor

[David Bruce]

Nothing at all like harvesting tobacco in a blinding rainstorm <g>.
I have to admit I don't miss those days at all.
Got my tractor driving start in a tobacco field, on an Allis B at 7 yo.  
Couldn't get the hang of the B's clutch so the "field tractor" and the 
"travel to the barn tractor" (an Allis D-14) were switched.  I handled 
the clutch better but I couldn't reach the clutch and brakes at the same 
time so the routine was depress the clutch, shift to neutral then switch 
to the brake.  I didn't hit anyone or any tobacco plants - I dared not!
David
NW NC

charlie hill wrote:
> Yep farming is full of irony isn't it.
>
> Tobacco is much like a vegetable crop.  Once it begins to ripen it's got to 
> be harvested.  That particular year, I think it was 57 or 58 maybe, when it 
> rained the whole month of July we burried a Super A Farmall to the top of 
> the seat, on top of a hill in a sandy field.  It got stuck late in the 
> afternoon and spun down to the axle.  We left it overnight intending to dig 
> it out first thing the next morning.  When we went back into the field it 
> had slowly settled down in what was by that time quick sand.  About 2 weeks 
> later it got dry enough to dig a big hole around it and drag it out with a 
> wrecker.  I sure wish I had a picture of that now.
>
> The tobacco that was planted all around it was not lost.  It was carried out 
> of the field on foot.  The quality was not good but we saved it.  I keep 
> saying WE, actually I was just a small boy of  7 or so but I'll never forget 
> that summer.  I guess some folks reading this might wonder about a 7 year 
> old being out in that kind of weather and doubt what I'm saying.  I promise 
> you, I was out there all day long every day that summer, soaked to the bone, 
> sitting in the seat of an Allis B.  That's just the way it was back then. 
> Now a kid can't even drive a tractor until he's 14 or something like that.
>
>   
>