V1939-01HSJ

Junior fall 1939 to fall 1940

Tractor Overhaul: One summer just before harvest I was again running the tractor when Earl came out to the field and studied the exhaust. He was having a mental struggle, he was concerned that the tractor might not last through harvest w/o an overhaul and time was running out. He had previously gone into town and arranged with Walt Sauvage to overhaul the tractor. Walt was the one who delivered gas to him and who sold Allis Chalmers tractors. However Walt had become swamped with work and was not getting at Earls tractor Earl was more and more concerned. He finally got Walt to start on it but when they broke it down they found they needed certain parts and didn't have them in stock. Some people had already started to cut wheat and Earl was very impatient, when he found they didn't have the parts Earl made an uncharacteristic very high speed run to NB first to McCook then to Hastings to find the parts. When he got back with the parts he convinced Walt to provide him a loaner as Earl didn't feel the delay was his fault. Walt provided an equivalent Allis Chalmers except with rubber tires. We used this tractor to start harvest and a week later changed to the repaired one which Earl liked better anyway.

Riding the Cat: I wore an old felt hat, a pair of trousers and no shirt when riding the cat. The tracks churned up the dirt and it was much more dusty than the rubber tired one. On each side of the bench cushion seat were two steel plates. These plates became very hot with the heat of the sun superimposed on heat from the engine, I took great care to not burn my legs on the sides. I always wore glove else blisters would have formed from the constant pulling on the two large clutch levers which extended up from the floor. Earl got after me about going bare back, he was right, I acquired a severe sunburn before I was aware I'd left my shirt off too long. Nina brewed some strong tea which contains Tannin and applied it to my beet red back. The brew did the trick turning my hide dark brown and toughened to the suns rays. I continued the summer without a shirt. In those days we didn't know about the dangers of skin cancer, a deep chocolate tan was considered a mark of distinction by kids of all ages.

Dogs gone Wild: Dogs from town would sometimes roam out into the country, team up with country dogs and start running as a pack. They would sometimes attach & cripple livestock confined in a coral. Earl had a large beautiful male Police dog breed and his folks a large half Collie half Shepherd female dog. The two had a batch of about 5 pups. These pups now full grown became part of one of these packs, nice domesticated pets during the day, doing uncontrolled mischief at night. One night about 3:00 am Nina woke me up and said grab your rifle and join Earl. I quickly slipped into pants, shoes, gun in hand went out into the farmyard with Earl. Earl had heard dogged among the cattle in a coral south of the barn & had gone out to look. From south of the house he was looking at the horizon to the west saying I think I can see a dog or two on the horizon, it's not my dog as he's here beside me. I looked carefully and could also make out a silhouette, and said yes I see one but it's a long way off. Earl said yeah, do you think you could hit it? I said I think it's about the end of the range, do you want me to try? Earl said the only way we can stop them is to shoot one, I don't believe any are older farm dogs, they don't generally join a pack. Go ahead and try, your eye sight is probably better than mine. I took my time and set the sight for max range. I squatted down rested my arm on one knee to fire & did. The silhouette moved off and we could hear a dog yelp. Earl said it's sure hard to tell but I think you hit it. It's probably wounded, come get in the truck and we'll go see. We got in the truck and drove to the spot, there was nothing there but there was an abandon road a bit to the north with a dip and tall weeds, an obvious place for an animal to hide. Earl was convince the dog had been hit, he was also convinced it was a large dog. We got on the old road and started into dip lined with the tall weeds. Earl said roll your window up, if that's a large wounded dog he could attack. I with drew my gun from leaning out the window and rolled the window part way up, Earl had done the same. Sure enough the dog was there! It was one of the Police/Shepherd dog pups now full grown. He was crippled in the back right leg but obviously ready to fight anyone coming out after him. Light from the head lights revealed his teeth drawn back, his eyes flashed with pain driven fear & hate. Earl said he thought it might be those full grown pups turned wild. Earl extended the barrel of his rifle through his partially opened window, took aim and fired. It was close range and the animal fell dead, out of it's misery. I most certainly would not want to go after that dog on foot, I appreciated Earls being cautious, perhaps he'd had similar experience before.

Cutting Wheat for Edna Lotker (paper overhead), 1938. Darrell on tractor , Earl on Combine.

On our Way again, tractor was hot, Earl wanted me to wear shirt, I should have

Wheat Fire!!: It was a summer, just before harvest, when I discovered the value of a Party Line phone. Earl and I were out in a field south of the house when Earl yelled for me to stop, I looked up to seen Nina in the distance waving a blanket. This was the Emergency Signal and we made a made dash to the house. Nina yelled to Earl “Wheat Fire -- Wheat Fire” pointing to the SW and calling out the farmers name. Nina had gathered some Gunny Sacks (Burlap Bags), Earl tossed these into the back of the truck pulled over by the garage to toss on an empty barrel, in the mean time Nina had gone to the water tank with large milk buckets and the three of us quickly bucketed water into the barrel, Earl tossed the Gunny Sacks into the water and we took off at high speed trailing a cloud of dust. In the distance we could see smoke rising, as we continued zig zagging our way to the fire we could see dust trails from many trucks all headed the same way. Everyone seemed to know exactly what to do and fell into place to man a fire break to stop the fire. A near by neighbor had connected a One Way behind his tractor and was cutting a swath through the beautiful ready for harvest wheat ahead of the flames. This span of dirt in the path of the fire was widened with a return swipe as persons ran toward the flames to stop them where they were. Most like us were armed with wet gunny sacks, one in each hand, which were flailed into the burning wheat blotting out the flames. My but it was an awesome sight, it would have made a magnificent movie! The broad vacant expanse of prairie with waving heavy laden wheat turning more yellow each day, had been suddenly transformed to a row of men in dynamic motion vigorously putting out the rapidly expanding circle of flames that had erupted and gone amuck carried by the wind. One could feel the money burning from afar, the initial few when it started could not be everywhere and had lost the battle of containment. The crackling sound of burning wheat put vigor into every fire fighter. Everyone had a stake in this. If they didn't get it stopped it would soon be larger and in other fields, each person knew cooperation was essential to survival in the battle with nature's whims.

We were pooped and drove back at a leisurely pace. I don't know what was on Earls mind but I couldn't help think; that rapid accumulation of help seemingly out of nowhere was due to that Party Line Telephone call, that Emergency Ring caused every house wife to rush to the phone and signal her man no mater where he was.

Hail Stones: Conditions and weather changes. Once bare back on the tractor after harvest it changed from hot to cool, from dry to a rain shower, the abruptly to hail! The hail pieces began small and grew to the size of marbles, enduring the pelting changed to seeking protection. I stopped the tractor and sought shelter under the engines meager comfort, the pelting continued for some time before passing on as quickly as it came. I continued while seeking warmth from the engine to counter the cold wind on my bare back.

Pulling the Combine: The primary crop in Western Kansas was wheat, the names of the wheat strains planted then have long since disappeared. One of the most common then was called Wichita, however Earl had planted Black Hull, though it looked just like the others. Cutting wheat with a Header and hauling it to a Trashing Machine had disappeared by then. The combine had taken over, initially pulled by horses and powered from it's forward motion, it now had it's own gasoline engine to run it's own machinery. A header extended to the right side. A real of rotating boards pressed the heads of the wheat into cutters on the leading edge of the header tray. The wheat fell on a canvas conveyer which carried it to the main body and into the thrashing apparatus. The wheat was elevated to a bin on top and the chaff was dispersed by a rotating dispenser in back. The combine rested on two large steel wheels with broad flat rims. The frame extended forward to hitch onto the tractor. The mechanisms of the combine were driven via linked flat open link chains. The mechanisms were low speed. It would take quite a few years before these mechanisms were engineered to run at higher speeds under remote controls. Earl chose to ride the combine standing by the Hercules engine where he could control the height of the header and thus the amount of straw taken in to pick up the heads of wheat. If wheat was down due to wind or hail progress was slow as there was much straw. There was no cover over the combine or tractor thus both crew members were exposed to the elements. After WWII self propelled combines came into use along with enclosed cabs with radio and air conditioning. However that was after much of the work went to custom cutters. Such a machine would have been too costly for use by one farmer for what he could cut locally during harvest.

My job on the tractor was quite simple, I kept the tractor moving at the pace Earl wanted and at a constant distance from the prior swath cut. Around and around from outside in progressing clockwise till finished at the center. When driving down wind the chaff would often be lifted up from in back of the combine and shower down on the tractor driver. It tested the drivers disposition and self control to endure the chaff dust penetrated the nostrils and slithered down a bare back. In this mode there was no cooling breeze flowing over the driver. The only shade was from the brim of your hat. many farmers wore large rimmed straw hats which were a very pragmatic solution. I wore an old felt hat from my days at the Sale Barn where cattle men wore felt hats.

We often kept going through lunch stopping only to eat a sandwich lunch Nina brought to the field. At such times Nina often wore the classic western woman’s bonnet and large apron. These were time proven practical items of apparel. The bonnet encompassing a woman’s hair and blocking the sun from eyes and face. The large aprons used as carrying baskets as well as handy towel and protection. We drank water from a large crock jug with corn cob cork & water soaked gunny sack for a degree of evaporative cooling. There was no ice for ice water and such would have not been good for us in that heat. We didn't know to take salt pills then but I guess we took in our daily needs with salted pork for breakfast and ham for supper.

Another person drove the truck which would pull up on the left side to unload the bin of wheat while we were still on the move. Some times it was necessary to off load onto an old wagon to keep cutting when the truck didn't make it back in time because of being backed up in line at the Grain Elevator. Scooping wheat from the wagon into the truck was something no one enjoyed having to do.

Just before harvest everyone was checking their wheat to see if it was dry enough to cut always alert to see if any others had started. Once it was ready it was a dawn till sunset affair, with chores still done before and after while it was still dark. We didn't try to operate at night as sometimes it would be too damp but mostly because we needed the sleep for the next very long day. Both of the two years I drove for Earl, excluding the year it wasn't worth cutting we cut about 800 acre of Earls wheat then cut about that much more for others.

It was during this time that I began to appreciate how much money a farmer could have tied up in equipment that was used for only a brief time. I've always been very glad for the chance to have worked on the farm for those few years as a kid, and very much appreciated the company of relatives and all they thought me including courteous behavior, they were all wonderful people & I was very proud of them.

Model-A I came out of the house in a hurry. I was late for a date with my girl friend, Fern Erickson 25 miles away. As I started to jump in my Model-A I noticed that the right rear tire was flat. I had just cleaned up after a hot dirty, sweaty job and here was another, now I'd be more late than ever.

Fern Ericson

As I hurriedly worked David McGee, the neighbor boy across the street, gave me a hand. I ran in, cleaned up, thanked him and took off west from 306 W Oak St. The rear tires spit gravel and dust as it had been freshly re-graveled & was not destined to be paved with black top till after WWII. Near by Cass Ave to the Grade School had been paved in red brick after WWI, mostly because it carried runoff rain water from up on the hill that would otherwise flood houses.

As I drove west on US-36 highway I kept telling myself I should have taken time to patch the tire, as it was now my spare. This highway was a good road, it's cut's and fill's had been made by teams of horses & mules thus it still followed the rolling hills contours. In a few years it's grade was improved and surfaced with black top. My but it sure seemed like I was going slow, but it always seemed that way when in a hurry to be on time for a date. I noticed I had a strong head wind and checked the speedometer. My gosh I really wasn't making very good time at all, the head wind was strong but I hadn't noticed it slowing me down that much before.......while pondering why I noticed water coming out from under the radiator cap! A Model-A radiator cap screwed on as a plug into a pipe, there was no pressure seal, when water got hot enough to generate steam it pushed water passed the threads and out. This water coming out said there is steam pressure below!

Now what!! All I needed was a blown head gasket or something else to shut me down. After my first overhaul of this car the head gasket had blown, the car ran just fine but it was winter time and it left a trail of white steam fog. I now slowed down, pushed in on the clutch and revved the engine to listen for abnormal sounds. Everything seemed all right, there was no steam coming out the back, just water from the radiator cap. I soon found that when I slowed down the boiling over would stop. If I speeded up it would start. I decided I'd better have a look and reached to retard the spark and stop. My gosh, the spark was already retarded! I'd been driving with a retarded spark since I started. That was why it seemed sluggish, did a retarded spark also cause the engine to heat & the radiator to overflow?

I advanced the spark and the car came to life responding like its normal self. It was like having a tail wind rather than a head wind and the radiator ceased to boil over! I admonished myself for being so dim witted. Probably every Model A owner in the county could have told me what was wrong. A new lesson every day it seemed, that lesson paid dividends in the ensuring years.

Over twenty-five years later while driving a 1951 Oldsmobile with over 100,000 miles on the Riverside Freeway near Anaheim, Ca, it began acting sluggish and running hot. I changed to the other car & left it to be fixed telling the mechanic I thought the automatic spark advance was shot. Later when I picked up the car he asked how I knew what was wrong. I told him I learned that symptom from a Model A. He said, but I don't think a Model A had an automatic spark advance. I replied it didn't, I was suppose to be the automatic part, it was me that didn't work. I'm not sure he understood, he'd probably never worked on a Model-A.

After correcting my problem I drove on, settled back and relaxed --- RUMBLE - THUMP! The sound came from the back of the car! There, a wheel was speeding past me on my left!! It was traveling at twice my speed and veering across the road. There were no cars ahead, and none behind. I wiggled the steering wheel and it steered all right, where did the wheel come from?

I was going down a long grade followed by a high fill in the valley and a long hill up ahead. On the left was a fenced in buffalo grass pasture.

The wheel left the roadway at the center of the fill in a long leap. It hit the ground in the road ditch and made a bounce high above and over the barbed wire fence. It sped up the pasture hill on the far side finally falling over near the top. This unexpectedly fascinating sight had consumed my attention. The realization that the wheel had to be mine had been relegated to await its turn for attention. It got it, the car tilted back on its rear brake drum to a metal on gravel noisy halt!

I had rolled down the hill and across the fill engrossed in the antics of that wheel. As the car reached the steeper upgrade it lost it's three wheel balance. In my impatience to get started I hadn't tightened the wheel nuts. They'd worked off one by one falling somewhere along the road.

I couldn't get the jack under the axle. Finally after using pieces of broken fence posts I managed to lift the axle and install the recovered wheel. I put the spare in the back seat and used the three nuts that hold the spare to attach the recovered wheel.

As I drove trying to clean my hands with my handkerchief I kept muttering the time honored expression, haste makes waste.