[AT] Can you name the first three tractors you drove?

[John & Jan Paur]

My first three were: 1) Farmall F-12, easy tractor for a boy to handle. 2) 
McCormick-Deering 10-20, a man killer to drive, especially for a young boy. 
3) John Deere GP, I loved that tractor, easy and fun to drive.  John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "carl gogol" <cgogol at twcny.rr.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 4:49 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Can you name the first three tractors you drove?


> Now this seems like an easy question, but you guys telling your age of 
> first
> time is a bit of a stretch for me.
>
> My first ride on a tractor may have been on the lap of my dad at the age 
> of
> 3 or so on his TD-9 dozer.  He let me play with the blade control on a 
> trip
> from the field to the barn one night and got a bit irritated when I jabbed
> it into the ground a few times,  I'm sure it was a reasonable thing to do
> from my viewpoint as that what he did all day long!
>
> My fist solo drive was probably a bit older than most of you.  It was
> picking oat straw bales with a pre WW2 Farmall H with my mother and dad.
> Dad's attitude was I should be able to hoist a bale from the ground to 
> about
> the second tier of bales before I was "big enough" to drive.  I was 
> probably
> at least 10 by then.  It was complicated by not ever using a clutch before
> and having to start and stop the tractor smoothly or risk losing the load
> and having to relift the bales.  Lets just say it wasn't that easy with 
> him
> making sure I didn't ride or slip the clutch too much and wear it out
> prematurely.  I eventually spent a lot of time raking and mowing hay as 
> well
> as doing almost all the hauling of wagons (and of course unloading them)
> once we got the kicker baler.
> The JD-60 was probably next, picking rocks when my dad was in an adjacent
> field seeding with the H.  Normally we would use the H for rock picking. 
> I
> remember how tired I was at the end of the day, and so very sore the next.
> The JD 60 was about 3 times the climb into the seat relative to the H and 
> I
> must have made that climb 200 + times that Saturday.  ( I would guess that
> had to be about age 14.)
> The next was an International B-275, my first diesel tractor.  Our 
> neighbor
> loaned it to us for a few days during straw baling because the H was in 
> the
> shop for a major overhaul.  I was raking straw one Sunday PM and the
> greatest clatter you can imagine started, it was a rod going through a
> sleeve.  It ould have been a perfect PM except for that.  Before the great
> clatter one of the Goodyear blimps passed directly overhead - I'll guess
> about 1965.
> Carl Gogol - Manlius, NY
> Tasty grazing in the Oran valley of Central NY
> AC D14, 914H
> JD 5320 MFWD
> Kubota F-2400, B7300HST
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at