[AT] From AP Man cuts off his arm to free it from a antiquecornpicker.

[Bill "Bear" Hood]

I have a MM picker and a MM Unitractor with picker on it and it picks corn good.  I respect both.  

My picker story goes back to the early 70's.  Had a neighbor named Ledbetter who had the right arm off between the elbow and shoulder.  I knew it was from a corn picker accident.  Both of us did custom farming and hay bailing in the county and dealt with the same implement dealers and supply houses.   One day he called me to  ask if I would come over to his place and weld a new pan in the elevator on his JD mounted (on an A) corn picker. He had a sheet metal shop brake the piece so it would fit right in and it needed tacking in.  

He was helping get the old rusty worn pan out and was talking in tongues as many of us do when doing something like this.  We stopped for a coffee break and I asked him about his arm and the accident.  He said that he bought this picker from Royal and Barrow in Athens in '47 and in '48 as he was opening the field at his Uncles place he stopped it up with some green stalks in the turnrow.  He grabbed a short stick out of the brush and poked at the blockage.  The stick hung and he was jerking and prying on the limb.  When it broke off finally, he was off balance and fell into the rolls.   I asked if it bothered him to run the machine that had injured him and changed his whole life.  His reply was something to the effect that this "D*^$( thing had grabbed him once and he talked to it all day to remind it that he was not going to let it get a holt of him a second time.  He said he could cut off the Picker, kill the tractor and let the radiator cool a bit before  using a long hook to unstop that sucker.  I know he picked some corn for hogs at home until the mid 80s.  He raised 3 boys and 2 girls with 2 cyl JD equipment and bailed lots of hay working hard all his life.  I went by his farm recently and his oldest son had all new equipment most over 100 hp, but that A and picker was still in the implement shed.  I hope he is telling the angels in heaven the story about why he is short part of his arm.    
Bear

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