How old were you?

[alabamafrog]

I'm curious as to what is “normal” as far as how old you were when you started driving a tractor. I am not talking about riding in Daddy's lap or driving a lawnmower. I'm talking about actually operating the tractor.

I was 4-1/2 the first time they put me on the A and turned me loose pulling the wagon while Dad loaded square hay. He had to run and catch the tractor and help me turn around at each end of the field but I would hold it between the bales from one end to the other. By the time I was 6 I was plowing, discing, raking, mowing, etc, by age 8 I would get off the school bus and start plowing or mowing hay or what not and get a couple hour head start on Dad before he got home from work. During my teenage years Dad would commonly say that I was a much better tractor operator at age 5 then I was now.

When I tell folks these things they look at me like I am crazy and/or roll their eyes, including my wife. I know its true and have the pictures to prove it.
I am curious as to the real experiences of other tractor folks???

Here is my list;
Hand clutch tractors = 4
Dirt bike motorcycles = 5
Old car, off road only= 8
First gun that I kept in my room = 8
Hunting alone = 8
Honda 360 street bike = 14 (laws)
Pickup Truck on the road = 16 (laws)
First handgun = 21 (laws)

 

[RLA]

I started driving a MC Crawler in 1960 picking
stones out of fields when I was 3 years old..
Really thats how they baby sat me on the farm.
I"ve been on John Deere"s ever since....

 

[greenmech]

About 7 driving tractor for loading bundles. Probably 8 or 9 doing field work alone. Ron Mn.

 

[Old Bob]

I was 7 years old when my Dad started me on a drag type rotary hoe behind a 4010 John Deere. This may seem awful early to some city folks, but when you are raised on a farm every one has to pull their own weight. I am thankful my Dad taught me how to work and take care of business at an early age. I taught my son in the same manner. You don't wait to teach a child how to function in the world, until he is 16 years old.

 

[Ben.So.Tex]

Started driving a B pulling a wagon in the field while hand pickink corn @ 6 yrs old, had to push the clutch with my foot to make it walk forward, Started disking @ 12 yrs old and 48 yrs later I am still disking. I still have that B but I use my 730-720 now.

 

[CLW]

I remember when I was 5 or 6 my grandfather would open a gate at the corner of the house and I would get to drive the B through. There was a lighting rod that came down the corner of the house that jumped out and grabbed the cultivator as I went through the very first time. I pulled a trailer like the others posted when I was around 7 and a tandem disk or 5 disk one way at 8 or 9. Cultivators at 12. Never planted cotton or corn as that happened while I was is school. I always said you could get more cotton on a crooked row but Granddad didn't think that was funny. Got to put up beds with an A pulling 4 bedders when I was 14. At that time the A was about the biggest thing going in our part of the country and it sure sounded good. I think that was my favorite job.
My uncle got a new Massey Harris 20 and paid me 50 cents per hour one Sat to plow wheat stubble. Paid me with 5 NEW one dollar bills. My first paid job and I was rich.
This happened from 1949 until 1957.

 

[The Dukester]

I got my first real tractor driving job in 1942 driving a nearly new John Deere B pulling a flat-rack wagon and hay loader in the fields loading loose hay. Later on driving many different rigs loading bundles of shocked grain for threshing. I got paid 50 cents a day and all I could eat for dinner doing this job and was tickled as h-ll to have it. I turned 8 years old that summer, birthday is in July.

 

[jturbo10]

Age 6 for driving tractor around ranch. Mostly for picking up hay bales, spreading manure, packing corn etc. Drove grain truck at 12 on highways to elevator (not legal) but got ag license at 15. Drove hay trucks in fields at about 7 but not on roads. Dad was very careful about us kids around tractors operating equipment with pto's running so we weren't cutting hay until about 10-12. Kids are different today and the equipment is so much bigger along with the dangers.

 

[alabamafrog]

Another aspect of this is also “when”. For me it was the early 1980's till I graduated in 93. Apparently we were about 3 or 4 decades behind everyone else. Seems like learning to work young was much more common in the “old days” like pre 1960's, than it is now. Maybe that’s why people act like I'm crazy when I tell them this stuff, my generation and younger seem to have far less experience with child labor than the older generations.
I am very thankful I was raised the way I was!
My kids couldn't operate a lawnmower at age 15 (step sons that were near grown when I got them)

 

[Bspauld]

I was a little over 3 when I drove a Ford/Fergurson that my Dad bought new in 44. He put it in low and I drove it while they picked up stones. Drove a car when I was 6

 

[Jay Poole]

I started driving a B John Deere at 6; driving our 55 at 9 and hauling grain to the mill at 12 (on the road in a 57 Ford 2 ton).. I got my drivers license's in 75 and at 16 got my Bus license (you could do that back then in SC) and drove the school bus my last 2 years of high school. My times sure have changed!!!!!!

Jay

 

[Dan in Ohio]

My list is similar to yours but got started a little later as we did not more back to the family farm until I was 5. I remember plowing with a 430 (demonstrator tractor) in the fall when I was 7. Dad was nearby but I was running the tractor by myself. That next spring (1962) Dad got a new 2010 utility. I thought he got it just for me and remember how much more I liked it than the 430.

My older brother and I both hunted, road mini bikes and drove the Ford pickup long before what is acceptable now.

A few years ago at a co-workers retirement party (my mothers age) as we took turns telling personal stories about the honoree she told the whole group some stories about how hard I had to work on the farm where I grew up. I told them that the best thing I remember was that no one ever had to make me do any of it.

I just purchased an aerial photo of that farm which was taken in 1968, a lot of memories made there.

 

[Brian Dan]

I was 6 years old driving my dads B John deere with a small disk behind it. I was probably 8 when he put me on the B with a cultivator on it. The be only had a hand lift. I had to stop the tractor and let the cultivator down and then hang onto the lever to get it locked down, I had to do the same to raise it. My older brother used my grandfathers new style B with the powertrol lift. Dad would never let us cut hay or run the combine. At age 10 we were allowed to plow with our Farmall 400D or Farmall M. I raked all the hay at age 8 and by 10 bailed hay.

 

[fixer2u]

I was 5 or 6 when my dad and great grandpa had me running the Farmall H with an end loader up and down the field as they picked rocks.

 

[Samuel L Bontregger]

2 days before my scheduled birthday mom had to go to work, Dad needed help picking up bales. Mom shot me out--- put me on Essex Tri Directional with bottle warmer and said drive straight. However as most will know the ESX will go any direction BUT STRAIGHT. Thats my story and I'm sticking to it!!!!!

 

[tim s]

Sam, you probably remember going to the dance with your dad and coming home with your mom

 

[Anonymous-0]

first drove

tractor alone 7
combine alone 8 truck about then
motorcycle 7
drivers license 14
first traffic ticket 11

Paul south dakota

 

[buickanddeere]

26 or 27 months. Driving the 60 row crop with PS to bale
straw.

 

[Ralph Bauer]

Bicycle;7
Go-cart (pedals):6
Motorcycle (Suzuki TS80ER) 16
Car (Caprice Classic):17
Private pilot (C152, C172): 20
Commercial pilot(C150/152,C172,C182,C182RG, B-55C/D:22
Tractor (TO-30): 35
Combine (MSuper92): PROPOSED 2012, would be 43...

.... and the bestriving wife crazy since March 6th, 1996...!!!! LOL

 

[Fred from MO]

Hand Clutch Tractor = 35 Old to the game
Dirt Bike = 9
First Drive = 1979 Cadilac when I was 13 up 270 in St. Louis, I worked in a bakery with my mom and it was 3AM in the morning, she was too tired to drive and let me do it on the weekends. SHHH dont tell the law.
First Gun =7
Hunting Alone = 10
First Street Bike 1969 BSA 650 twin = 16
Pickup Truck (my first car 1971 Chevy) = 15
First Handgun (Model 28 S&W 357)= 26

 

[Hotflashjr]

Hand Clutch tractors - 18
Foot clutch tractors - 12
Riding mower - 8
Dirt Bike - 14
Snowmobile - 8
3-wheeler - 10
4-wheeler - 12
Truck off road - 14
Car on the road - 16
Ducatti street bike - 22
Honda on/off road bike - 16
No gun of my own, yet.

 

[James Howell]

Farmall Super C = 12

1950 Chevy Fleetline = 14

T37 & T38 = 22

 

[Rusty wheel]

Started plowing gardens up and down the road at 7 with a farmall cub. Pulling grain wagons from the field to the elevator with a Massy Harris 30 at 8 years, bailing with a Minnie U at 9. Those were wonderful days.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I was born in September & much like you (haying) Dad first put me on the tractor to have me run it alone the summer before my 5th birthday.

The differences..... We made hay loose back then so he was forking it not picking up bales and it was an H not an A.

We still have that H and and I'm close to 60. It still amazes me how much work is in that tiny but very tough little tractor. I didn't cultivate for a few more years. Dad was pretty "thrifty" & wanted to "get all the use" out of every part so Brother & I rode countless miles on the rear gangs because those worn out shovels worked so much better when we were along for the ride! We enjoyed it & so did he.

Bet he'd trade his truck off to be able to do it all over again!

Good post.

Later.

 

[2520-4010]

Where does all the years go? It's been so long ago, I've forgotten some of the ages....

I know I drove tractors before I ran the combine, and I remember the summer before I started the 7th grade, dad started me driving a massey harris 80 with a 14 foot header. The wheat was pretty poor that year and was pretty short. I filled the header with dirt a few times but made it throught the two or three weeks it took us to harvest that year. The next year I moved up to the JD 95 with 18 foot header; what an upgrade!

I don't remember how many years before that that I started driving tractors. I think the first tractor I drove much was a super C of the neighbors. We had a NH bailer with the wisconsin motor and all I had to do was guide the tractor. Probably around six and I didn't drive too long. A few years later, I got to drive the H international and a 269? NH baler. Dad always wanted me to keep the baler full of hay and we always had dryland hay, so it meant shifting the tractor to speed up and down depending on the size of the windrow. There was a knack to it, catching the tractor between strokes on the baler to move the shifter without clutching.

We at one time had a moline U, international H, Ford 851, JD 3010, and JD 4010. Those were the tractors we had while I was in the first 12 grades. We had a big family. I had one brother and three sisters. Both of my parents and all of the kids would drive tractors at different times.

When my brother and I left home to go to college, dad got a 4320, soon to be replaced by a 4430.

I received a remi 870 shotgun for christmas when I was around 13. Had shot dad's 22 and shotguns earlier.

I think I was 12 when dad asked us kids if we wanted a motorcycle or color tv on summer......we all said motorcycle. We got both...he wanted the color tv. Hodaka Ace 90. Had to mix gas and oil. Had it a few years and traded it off for a honda 90. I bought a Honda CB 350 when I went to college. I think it was a 1970 model..maybe 72.

The summer after I graduated HS, my dad's uncle needed someone to farm his son's land (he was sick in bed}. They gave me his 69 model ford pu to drive and a International 1206 to farm with. Cab and no air. It was hot and dirty, everyday, six days a week. I remember that if I drove it 13 hours during the day I could make $20. I was getting $1.75/hour. Rich!
I drove it all summer until september.

Lots of memories....sometimes I wonder. All of that work seemed so hard then, but it didn't kill anyone that I can remember. But I also think that raising kids can be one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs there is....

 

[Craig C]

At age 13 I had taken over the Steiger Wildcat tractor, and really didn't want anyone else to drive it. Now we can't get any one to drive it.

 

[wijim]

It has been a long time. I was 6 on a JD A picking up bales, 8 or 9 on a snowmobile,10 dirt bike,12 pickup helping move equipment,12 tractor backhoe and dozer,16 tandem dump truck,19 semi over the road,31 back to dirt excavators, scrapers, dozers.I still have the A and my dads 70D use them on about 40 acres.

 

[Anonymous-0]

5 JD 2630 picking up square hay
8 cultivating tobacco all over the county
9 running grain truck in the field also same year I got my own
gun
And last milestones were at 14 D6 dozer and 6620 combine

 

[finn1wil]

I remember driving my fathers ford pickup thru the corral gate and being distracted enough to rub the gate post from one end to the other. I am hear to tell you, when he saw that it made an impression on me and the truck.

 

[Anonymous-0]

9 years old and a 49 A raking hay with a 36 ft rake. Had to prove yourself before you got to the 70 with powersteering and a radio. 15 and I had arrived, got to drive the grain cart with the powershift 4450. Miss those days

 

[rick deere]

My wife teaches pre school for 25 years and we have never seen a 4-5 year old that could pay attention much less drive a hand clutch john deere, I was at least 9-10 years old to be turned out in the fields alone plowing cotton.

 

[Ron W]

24 months.....I drove a cub cadet pulling a small flatbed trailer hauling feed bags as dad would carry them to the feeders in the phesant pens. I could not reach nor push in the clutch pedal, so I would kill the ignition to stop and push the starter to get it going again.

I had short legs and we had no tractors with hand clutches, so I had to wait until dad bought a 8n when I was 7 to drive the BIG tractors.

Driving Farm trucks on the road when I was 12.

 

[alabamafrog]

(quoted from post at 18:56:28 01/06/12) My wife teaches pre school for 25 years and we have never seen a 4-5 year old that could pay attention much less drive a hand clutch john deere, I was at least 9-10 years old to be turned out in the fields alone plowing cotton.

See, this is what I was thinking, I see how 4-5 year olds act even how 8-10 year olds act these days and its hard for me to see how I (and apparently a lot of others) could have driven and operated equipment like this at that age. My neighbors 17 year old can't even operate a golf cart without wrecking it, many years ago I put my newly acquired 15 year old on a riding lawnmower and turned him loose. After he made about 10 rounds I couldn't stand it anymore and had to go stop him and tell him that if he turned the blade on the yard would get smaller!

The biggest part I remember from my childhood is I WANTED to do it, I begged to work and got mad if Dad worked without me. All the kids I see these days including mine throw a fit and/or do a horrible job if you try and make them work, never mind volunteering.
One year I negotiated 25 cents an hour to be paid at the end of the year, Dad talked me into taking payment in the form of a couple baby calves that I had to bottle feed all winter. The next year he said he couldn't pay me because I had to work to feed my cows. Smart old fellow. I didn't care, still to this day all I know how to do good is work and I enjoy it.
Anyways, I am very lucky to have been raised like I was and wish I could have raised my kids the same way.

 

[alabamafrog]

I found some old pics of me “back in the day”;

Back of this one says I was 4

Back of this pic says I was age 8

This was like my 3rd motorcycle and the one I traded for my Honda CB360 when I turned 14 (legal age for motorcycle license in AL.)

 

[pjcarlson]

How may of your friends were killed farming at a too young age?
It's been a long time since I saw the stats,,, but they are staggering,,,The number of kids killed and severely injured farming. When I was young a class mate killed his father because he couldnt control the tractor he was driving.

Most of you are fortunate to have survived operating equipment when you were much too immature.

 

[kj(seil)]

The fall I was 8 yrs old Dad told me if I could get the 39 A stared by myself I could disc stalks , well it took me a while, but got her started. Cultivated with a 4 row cultivator the next summer.

 

[BushogPapa]

Started driving tractors earlier, but 1st time completely alone at age 6 with JD "B", Disc, Cultipacker and Harrow..in the back 12 acre field..
What a Rush..!!!
and NO, we didn't have irresponsible kids operating our equipment..
Accidents seldom happened, and when they did, it was because an older guy was operating several different Makes of Tractor and got crossed-up on which way the throttle opened or closed..
Operating the tractors was a Right-of-Passage..NOT Taken lightly..by the Kid, especially..
Had neighbors that were careless never would work for them..their equipment was about Beat to Death from miss-use..

Ron..

 

[bingo]

&seven years old, plowing cotton on a farmall cub (one row at the time)

 

[Ralph Bauer]

Been where I am now since 1998, but as I recall, all teenagers here got killed on 3( yepp we still got them) and 4-wheelers, falling out of the bed of a moving P/U, or simply driving too fast, drunk, w/ and w/o license, ......or shooting each other when horsing around or hunting! And, ohh yeah, falling off a horse! Never heard about a farm equip related accident/death. .... and maybe we are just lucky, dunno.

 

[ArnieinChesterfieldVa]

Twas 10 when I started dump raking on one of the old Ford's.

About 12 when I started side deliver raking & baling square bales.

One day when I was 12 my Mom sent me out to the other end of the north field to let Dad know lunch was ready. By that time I was sick of walking all the way out there....only had one tractor at the time....so I hopped into our Volkswagon Bug & commenced to driving out to the field instead of walking. Caught hell for driving the car but after that they let me run the Wagon around the farm if need be.

Hunted with my uncles about age 11 & on my own by 12.

First minibike was at 12 too & have stayed in some kind of trail bike or motorcycle since.

Lost my virginity at 14.....oh, that's right....you didn't ask that one !!!! LOL

 

[tim s]

It was a bit dangerous back then, since I was the oldest I was into the thick of all the work when I was young.We did a lot of custom work back then with 2 60's and 2 #25 combines and a 227 picker, plus custom baling with a 24T. I got caught in a PTO giving the feeder canvas a push on a #25, Dad was on the tractor and watched it all happen in a "Flash" all my lower clothes were stripped off and my leg got snapped off above my work shoe, I was 14 then. Another time I was hit in the rear moving a 720D down the road by a speeding car, it flipped me in the air and bounced me on the ground behind the car,knocked the left rim off and busted the 1500R hub,the tractor turned on the broken hub(still going road gear) and came back and ran over me before I could get out of the way,cutting my left toes off. 15 years later I got my right foot into a 10" auger, lost my right big toe on that ordeal,Darn it, don't have a big toe on ether foot now, but my shoes fit better, went from a 13 1/2 to a 12. We took a lot of chances back then with out thinking about it, and of course things are a lot safer now.

 

[B Woods]

Six years old driving a 1206 Ih pulling a 6 row doall , all day long by my self

 

[tim s]

Reading over all these post, I'm thinking our parents would be jailed for "Child Endangering" by todays standards. We were all taught to work when we were young, and I'm sure all on here still does there share of work daily. You can't wait till your children are 18 then tell them "now it's time to learn to work",this is some of the problems with the young people today, familys that work together and eat meals together have better work ethics... Dr Phil could learn from that

 

[alabamafrog]

I have always been a believer that whatever you teach a child from age 1 to about 6 is the most important and most influential, After about 12 or so there is little you can do to mold a child.

 

[Leememalone]

Age5-'37 B JD and model R manure spreader, had to load it myself with a pitch fork before I could unload it.
Age 6- Grandpa's Jubilee and 2 row rotary hoe, for 6 hours, I was in heaven.
Age 9- 6030 JD with 30.5-32's for duels and 30' disc and dump drags behind the disc, had to use both feet to depress clutch. I felt like a big boy but couldn't see over the steering wheel