Ryan's Tractor Story

I actually drove a tractor for the first time all by myself when I was only 6 years old. My father needed to plant corn in a field about a mile away but had no way to get both the hayrack with the seed, and the corn planter to the field with one tractor. So, he stood me up (I was too short to sit on the seat) on our 1947 John Deere B which was hitched to a few thousand pounds of seed and fertilizer. I was too weak to engage and disengage the hand clutch, but I could steer, run the throttle, and push in the kill switch. My dad reviewed with me how to do those 3 things, then he told me what field to drive to, put the tractor in 1st gear, engaged the clutch, and jumped off. I was off. I'm sure our neighbors, who were also farmers, our relatives, and who I met on the road while I was driving the tractor, must have thought my dad was crazy. But, I had no doubts I could do it. My Dad had said I could, and when you are that young, you trust everything your parents tell you. If he had told me I could fly, I probably would have.

Return to Background