[AT] Some ads from the 9/16 Lancaster Farming

[Francis Robinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Sloane" <mikesloane at verizon.net>


>
> 1930 Ford Model A' sedan, runs good, $15,000.

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    That sure is a big jump from all of those $15 to $25 Model "A"s from the 
late 1940's - early 1950's...  :-)
    We had a little Model A Ford flat bed truck made from a cut off sedan in 
those days. I think the bed was only about 5' x 5' with about 2' sides. It 
was nicely cut down by cutting it off right at the back edge of the front 
doors and the sedan back was cut off and moved up so that it had the shaped 
back including the rear window which all looked very natural. Many cut downs 
just had flat wood backs.
    I think my father paid about $50 for it with an extra rebuilt engine. He 
made wheels for it to run about 6:50x16" tires. It had a pair of knobby mud 
& snows on it. We used it like a tractor for pulling in loaded wagons etc. 
BTW, the wagon we used the most had a running gear made from model A front 
and rear axles (I still have and use it for light bale hauling). I recall 
sitting on the back of the truck bed in 1951 turning the crank of a hand 
crank seeder which had the cloth bag removed and replaced with a big shiny 
lard can. It was mounted to the hitch with an old horse drawn sickle mower 
flat seat spring. We were planting cereal rye on some land that had not been 
farmed for some years. We had bought and moved to this farm that year, the 
place had been rented for many years and several fields were considered 
"worn out". A number of neighbors discussed that... Its kind of hard to 
realize that such thinking was still common that recently. We seeded the rye 
then he disked it in a little with the TO-20 Ferguson and a Ferguson 7' 
disk. It came up well and yielded "decently".
    When we moved here that little Model A made a zillion trips doing much 
of the moving the 15 miles to this farm. My father made an exhaust pipe that 
came out of the side and then turned up to avoid field fires and when 
working in the fields in hot weather we pulled the nails that served as 
hinge pins and removed the doors.
    I also recall once one summer night going to the nearby (2 miles) 
drive-in theater in that with all 4 of us in the cab (tight fit) and then my 
sister and I sitting on a board across the bed to watch the movie. Around 
the farm I probably rode on the running board more than in the cab since the 
passenger side was usually full of fencing tools and "stuff". I learned to 
drive on the road in that old truck at about age 10. I had already been 
using tractors for a couple of years.
    Many of my country classmates also worked the fields at a young age. I 
remember being shocked when I went to the city school starting at the 9th 
grade at how little work, if any at all, most of my city classmates had done 
or were doing... Most just played around and killed time. A few did a lot of 
fishing and a few worked in their parent's business but most just goofed 
off... Many played alley b-ball much of the time. Some considered any little 
weekly chore to be a major imposition.
    We had 60 brood sows by the time I was in high school and I never quite 
figured out how my father thought it was right that I was the one out in 
freezing weather playing mid-wife between midnight and time to dress for 
school on any given day... In those days questioning my father's decisions 
could be physically dangerous...
    I do wish I had that Model A back...   :-)


--
"farmer"

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net