Colorchallenge Monday Red

This is the same style Farmall tractor that we had on our small farm growing up. There was no hydrolic lift on the back like modern tractors utilize so all of our equipment was pinned to, and pulled by a draw-bar on the back and if powered it was connected to a PTO. Operating the tractor and equipment could be very dangerous and my Dad was too terrified of the possibilities to allow me to use it for very many operations, but I used to love to hear it run and to ride around with him on it when we were not pulling any equipment.

My jobs concerning the tractor involved manual labor, that part I could do relatively safely without a lot of supervision. On the days when we were going to use it my Dad would send me out after breakfast to air up the tires. We did not own a power air compressor so it had to be done by hand. Do you have any idea how long it takes to air up one of those large rear tractor tires with a bicycle pump? We had two or three of these pumps and when one got too hot to hold any longer I would switch to another. My Dad would drink coffee and then come out and start doing the prep work for the days jobs, and there I was just pumping away as fast as I could.

When all of the tires were ready we put fuel in it and we were ready to fire it up. If we had a hot battery this was a fairly easy task, but when the battery was dead or the starter was out-of-commission ( which was more often than not) then we had to manually turn the engine over with a crank tool, or we had to hook a chain on the back of our Chevrolet pickup truck and pull start it. I was not allowed to use the hand crank and probably didn't have enough strength to do it anyway, but when we pull started it I had to either drive the truck or the tractor! Being small like the kid in this photo that was a very big deal and it was unusual for my Dad to take such risks where I was concerned, but the farm work had to be done if we were to eat.

It was an amazing experience to grow up on a small farm in rural Alabama and I wouldn't take anything for it. Yes there was a lot of work, but I was usually with my Dad and when we took breaks we drank from a milk jug full of ice water under a shade tree and talked about life, and family as well as many other subjects of great interest to me. When we were not working I was a free spirit roaming the woods and creek bottoms for miles around. My parents were not too concerned that bad things could happen because we knew very few bad people and outsiders were watched like a hawk. We knew every family that had land that joined ours and when I saw them I minded them just like I did my own parents. It was a great life and childhood and I have never felt that free and safe since I left home to join the Navy.