Drive - A Memoir 16th Installment
The
next thing I remember I was under a white cloth peering through the
fabric at a very bright light shining down on me. It’s a good thing
I didn't know the religious stories about going into
‘the light’
because I would have been afraid looking at the light. I could feel
somebody pulling out my hair and others probing and poking all over
my body. Later I was told the doctors were picking the gravel out of
my scalp. They said my skull was cracked all over like a cracked hard
boiled egg, and they had to shape my head somewhat round again. I
had, apparently, fallen out the door still hanging onto the door
handle and then went under the open door, because I had a huge gash
on my face. The next thing I remember I was in a crib with bandages
all over me, tubes taped to my hands and about two yards of cloth
wrapped around my head. I could have trick–or–treated as a mummy.
However, hospital trips to town were no fun, and so I chose not to
count them. Oh, I guess there was a third time in the hospital: I was
born as a $50 baby in 1948.
Summer
was ending and quite a bit of the farm work was done. Russ and I had
the first and second crop of hay cut and raked ahead of Vernon's
baler. The Ford was the tractor that I usually drove for the farm
work and Russ drove the Oliver 88. For haying the 88 was attached to
the ‘mower’ an implement that would cut the hay. It had about an
8 foot sickle bar device that stuck out behind and to the right of
the rear tire. The sickle bar had sharp teeth like protrusions and a
scissor like blade inside that was driven back and forth, very fast,
by the PTO of the tractor. This mower cut the hay and it would fall
back flat to the ground and Russell drove around and around the
field. My job was to come along with the Ford and the side rake which
was a spinning basket type device with springy teeth that would rake
the hay into a windrow. The windrow was then allowed to dry a few
days and at the perfect moisture content, then the hay was baled into
100 pound rectangular bales bound up with bailing wire. The bales
were then ready to be hauled off and stacked for winter feed for the
cattle. The Ford with the rake attached was exciting to drive because
the rake was heavy enough, when you raised the 3 point hitch to raise
the rake off the ground, the tractor’s nose in front was only a
little heavier than the rake. The whole outfit was a little like a
playground teeter–totter on the rear wheels. As you drove along and
hit a bump the tractor's front wheels would soar up into the air a
500 more words tomorrow
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