Good old days

[Donald Lehman]

Don't want to hijack Randy's Christmas, thread so I'll start a new one.

Any of you as tractor crazy as a kid as I was??

Beside my "tillage" work in Mom's garden with the 400 and the 620, I had a model JD 14T baler. I would cut grass with a set of grass cliipers and actually turn the flywheel on the baler by hand and bale the grass, tie it by hand at the end of the bale chamber with string and stack them on a wagon, run them up a JD hay elevator into the hay mow in my toy barn, throw them down the hay chute and open them to feed my toy cows.

I didn't have a toy forage harvester, but I did have a pull type combine and a cast iron threshing machine that belonged to my father as a child, and used those as my forage harvesters. Would cut the "silage" in the wagons (and an IH dump truck with a working lift and tail gate) with a pair of Mom's sewing scissors and then "blow" it into the silo at my toy barn. All of this was done with the proper accompanying sounds effects, of course........... Also ended up with a tandem dump truck and had an old steam shovel that was my fathers also, teamed with a JD 420 dozer with a blade. Did a lot of logging, dirt hauling and road building in the garden with those. That, and my model train set accounted for the happiest days of my youth.

Certainly wouldn't have had time for a computer even if they had existed then and wouldn't have wanted one.

 

[rrlund]

Oh I hope to tell you. I don't have the other picture from the Christmas that I got the 620,but I got a mounted picker,wagon,combine,disc and baler with it. Dad made a wooden barn for me a few years later. Had a mow,stanchions and a door big enough to drive the tractors in.
I had a couple of those Ohio Art tin farm sets over the years too. For many years,I got toy tractors and implements for Christmas and birthdays.
My mother worked for the local paper for several years,two days a week,going around to local businesses picking up their ads for the week. The John Deere dealer was one of the places she went,so I got all the new toys as soon as they came out.
Dad made me several implements for the pedal tractor and for an old Tractall that we had here. I had a trailer,grain drill and baler for them,along with a one arm loader that he made for the Tractall,out of a 6 time fork and the tubing from an old school bus seat frame and a two row cultivator made from seat frame tubing.
One thing I remember wanting more than I remember wanting anything in my life was the old style cab,blue Tonka cattle truck. I got that for Christmas one year too. Like everything else,I wore it out. Of all the toys I have around here,I still haven't replaced that one. I found one,barely used,in the box with the cattle and the corral,right across the road from Lee Little's house in Tennessee. The guy wanted $550 for it. He offered me a deal at $500,but I'm still looking.

 

[jon f mn]

Never had a pair of pants that didn't have holes in the knees from doing farm work. Of course I only wore shorts in the summer. My toys were mostly case tho, except for the same 60 with picker and attachments that rrlund has. I'm sure that even tho the neighbors were 1/2 mile away they could hear me and my little brother Bruce filling silo.

 

[Donald Lehman]

Yes! I had the JD mounted picker for the 620. Oliver 77 tractor, Superior drill, oliver siclke mower that had a working sickle, an Oliver manure spreader. Had JD, Oliver, and AC gravity boxs. Had a team of horses and a horse drawn maunure spreader. The spreader was ground driven and the beaters worked (belonged to my father as a child) Also cast iron Fordson and 1020 tractors on steel wheels, (for a depression era kid, Pop did okay on farm toys) had a Ford 800 series tractor, Allis G, D-14, (which on MY farm was magically transformed into a D-19) and had an all plastic TD-14 Ag crawler. Had a couple of off brand 560 Farmall dopplingers, too. My maternal granfather built me two false endgate wagons to fit the running gears of the gravity box wagons. Used to have "pulling contests in the garden. Would fill up that huge tandem dump truck with dirt, hook each tractor I had to the truck and then try to put the same amount of down pressure on the rear wheels of each tractor as it made it's pull and see which tractor tire design had the most traction. Thinking back on it now, I also had a JD 50, A, 4010, and several 5 and dime rubber/plastic tractors and implements. happy times, indeed!

 

[Bruce from Can.]

Don ,I too spent many happy hours ploughing discing planting ect. as well as road building in the corner of the garden given to me to farm. Mom never had to go looking for me, as she new I would be just outside the door ,in the garden farming.Also remember having to have a bath at the end of each day, and having to leave my overalls outside before I could come in the house. Worked hundreds of acres on my hands and knees before I started school. Was just a bit disappointed that my own boys didn't do this, but I was alone, nearest age brother ten years older that me. My boys had each other to play with,so didn't get lost in their own little world the same way.

 

[Donald Lehman]

Those miniature silo blowers DID make a LOT of noise didn't they, Jon?

 

[Bruce from Can.]

Ford 5000 was my big horse, also had a Row crop IH for light jobs.

 

[rrlund]

Yep,I got the three beater manure spreader with that tractor too,I'd forgot about that.
I had the Ford/Hubley 800 tractor set in the barn box with a trailer and three bottom plow. I remember there were two plastic crates of chickens for the trailer. There was a kid with downs syndrome my age here in the neighborhood. His mother brought him over one day and he smashed those crates in to little bitty splinters. I bawled my eyes out. I'm still traumatized over that incident. If I see him around anywhere,that's still to this day the first thing I remember about him.
I had an Oliver 1800,Case 930 Wheatland,Allis 190,Farmall 806,a Hubley wide front like a Farmall M and a True Scale like a 460 just to name a few others.
It seems like my childhood must have lasted 25 years to have had the time to have all the stuff I had and still spend as much time as I did on my bicycle. It's like the words in that old song,"When the days stretched out before me like a long long Texas road.".

 

[Tom in Ga]

My grandson is 10 now. For at long as I can remember, he has been farming. About 2 years ago he decided he wanted a fence to put a horse in. He got the posthole diggers and went to digging holes. Good straight holes about 2 feet deep. Not exactly in a straight line but wherever he thought he needed one. I showed him how to pack a post and he packed about 10 all over the yard. Then he wanted to hang a gate and I showed him how to do it. He kept asking if the gate would keep a horse in and I said if a horse gets thru this gate I will give your money back. He said I didn't pay you and I said I will still give you money. He still don't have a horse and has pulled most of his posts up but he still likes to dig in the dirt. May be he can be a farmer when he grows up.He's too hardheaded to give,up Tommy
Q

 

[rrlund]

Did your mother ever buy those pants with the double knees right from the store for you guys? I got to wearing right through those. Then she got out the iron on patches.

 

[Bernie/MA]

The only tractor I had was a cast iron Fordson. Had other trucks, cars, etc that were tin or rubber. My area was a space between the house and a syringa bush about 8 feet wide, shady all day. A lot of my toys were wooden because my mother worked in a factory that made them during the war. They were booming because of no metal or rubber. She would bring home rejects and parts like cracked wheels. Railroad cars were blocks about 7" long with 3 holes for wooden milk cans, round ones for tankers, etc. They connected with hooks and eyes. I remember having a train that stretched across the living room.

 

[RLA]

As a Child when I'd go with Granddad to the John
Deere dealer I would stand & look at all the John
Deere toys, I never had any of them as a child.
We didn't have much, My dad was Blind & was a
wood worker. So he didn't go out much. So I was
at Grand Dad side when I was Not in school.
Grand dad didn't have much time for toys. As I
grew up & had a son of my own, I bought toys &
over a short time he didn't' have the interest
them as I did. But I have Grandson's now & they
have sparked & renew'd my desire for toys.

 

[rrlund]

Don't let it get to this point. LOL
I think I have a problem.

 

[Tom OConnor]

Randy,
I know just what you are talking about except my Mother made me take my pants off and try them on right there at the rack where all those people were looking at me. Didn't have time to go back in the little cubby closet and try them on like all the other people. Haven't liked shopping for clothes to this very day.

 

[Fordfarmer]

Put various Ford model numbers in there, and a sandbox rather than a garden, and that could have been written about me.
My boys don't play with tractors as much as I did, but do some. Luke's favorite thing to do with his toy tractors and machinery is line it all up and have an "auction" . I may have started a couple addictions there...

 

[ztrmower]

wish i had all your oliver collection, i grew up on them.

 

[rusty6]

I was lucky to have my share of farm toys as a kid but unfortunately not many of them survived my rough use. This photo from about 1956 is one that hurts to look at. It looks like I am about to step on the toy Cockshutt 30 tractor setting on the steps. It was a plastic one and I do still have the remains of it . I hear they are worth a bit now.

 

[jon f mn]

You would have been hard pressed to tell which tractor was working harder, the one on the chopper or the one on the blower. And the gallons of water we hauled so we could get stuck in the mud just like dad. Lol

 

[jon f mn]

Yes I remember those pants.

 

[Fawteen]

I was raised on a farm a mile and a half northeast of Fowler, Michigan in the 50's and 60's.

Most every year, we'd go to the Ionia Free Fair and Dad would buy me and my little brother a John Deere farm toy.

I distinctly remember a 40C crawler, at least one 2 cylinder Deere, a New Generation tractor (don't recall the specific model) a 12A combine, barge wagons, manure spreader, a 14T baler, a mounted plow and there were probably others that have slipped my mind.

He built a really nice tool shed to keep them all in one year.

Also had a Tonka dumptruck modeled after a 60's Ford that hauled a lot of dirt.

Between my bedroom floor in the winter and the north end of the garden under the big Chinese Elm in the summer, I was a BTO!

 

[rrlund]

You mentioning getting toy tractors at the Ionia Free Fair strikes a memory too. My younger brother and I each got an AC 190 there one time. They were handing out some kind of a sticker too with the AC logo on them. It wasn't really paper,more of a fabric of some kind. It was just about the size of the hood of those 190s. I stuck one on mine. While we were walking the midway with them,I tried to peel it off. The paint was coming with it so I convinced my brother how much better it looked with that thing on there and got him to trade with me.

 

[wvfarmboy]

thing is i played with thetoys at a verry young age grew up on a jd tractor and still using tractors only thing changed was the tractors got newer

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 14:20:36 12/23/14) Don't let it get to this point. LOL
I think I have a problem.

roblem?! Looks like a gold mine to me!

 

[Dick2]

I was a kid in the 1930's; folks couldn't afford toys. I mostly had a rock, a stick and my imagination. I was envious of the neighbor kid that had a lot of toys and his folks were on welfare.

 

[Donald Lehman]

Yup on both counts.

 

[Donald Lehman]

The Ford 800 series tractor I had was a much larger scale than the others I had, so it was my "big" tractor, both figuratively and literally.

 

[Donald Lehman]

That is one heck of a neat collection, Randy.

 

[Donald Lehman]

Did some bicycle riding, too, but we had a pond full of bullheads next to the barn, so I spent a lot of time fishing right out the front door.

 

[Donald Lehman]

Guess I wasn't the only one. Looks like I brought back a lot of fond memories for a lot of fellers. Those were the days, weren't they?

 

[rrlund]

I'll bet a few look familiar don't they?

 

[Fawteen]

Dad started a family in the 30's. Older brothers born in 1935, 1937 and 1944. I didn't come along until 1950.

I can't speak for the older boys, but I grew up hearing from my step-mom what a tightwad Dad was. Having since raised a couple kids myself, I have a much better idea of just how generous he was.

I also thought he was too strict, but viewing things through the lens of experience, I realize he let me get away with a lot of stuff. I thought I was being slick, I now know he was letting me find my way.

 

[NEKS]

Spent a lot of time under the big Elm beside the garage where the chickens scratch and made fine dirt. My brother and I had Oliver tractors that looked like 77 Oliver's. The back tires were solid rubber. To this day I have never drove a Oliver. Brother did for the neighbor, he had 77's. Old hay elevator chain outlined our farms. Had a wagon and a baler that we made out of wood. A few years at fair time, instead of spending money on rides mom would buy us some farm toys. That dirt had to be powder so could leave a good tractor track. Planted a lot of tree leaves for crops.

 

[Dr. Walt]

Growing up as a "City kid" in Burbank, Calif. (Los Angeles suburb) I never played with tractors or toy farm implements. At four years of age I contracted a very rare form of Rheumatic Fever which went undiagnosed until I became critically ill and had to be hospitalized. Doctors just couldn't figure out what it was or how to treat it until it was almost too late. Got massive doses of Penicillin & ACTH every hour, 24/7 for two weeks. I felt like a pin cushion. Then a year of "bed rest", spent my 5th Birthday confined to bed. For toys I had bicycles; metal, pedal powered Fire Engine with removable ladders; Electric Train Set on a 4'x8' layout that my Dad made for me. Had several imaginary friends that I played with. But the most fun that I had as a youngster was sneaking in to the "back lots" of our local movie studios (Warner Brothers, Disney, and Columbia Studios which was right at the end of our block), and playing on the old movie setts or the old Steam Locomotives and rail cars. Growing up I knew and played with a lot of kids that were "movie stars"; in later years I was even in a few movies and TV Serials myself.

Doc :>)