Things we had/did do when we were younger/poorer!!!

I just posted a reply to George on the Tool forum. He was asking about draining the oil out of a small generator and then keeping the oil warm in the house. Then putting the oil into the generator when it was cold to help the generator start. HE was wondering if the warm oil would help the small motor start.

This made me think about how I started the Ford 6000 I had, to be able to do winter chores.( Did not know about any type of electric heater that would have worked and could not have afforded it anyway) Basically I had a valve in place of the oil drain plug. I would drain the engine oil when I was done with the tractor for the day. I used a steel Jerry can to keep the oil in. I would set it next to the hot water radiator heater in the house. I do mean right next to it, As in against the heater.

So I would get up and put a small trickle battery charger (only one I had) on the tractor first thing, even before breakfast. Then after the feeding chores I would take an old hair dryer (only worked on low, Wife threw it out, I "saved" it LOL). I kept the air intake clamp, lose in the winter. So I would unplug the battery charger and plug in the old hair dryer. I would stick the hair dryer into the intake manifold. I would then pour the warm oil back into the engine. I would then let it set a few minutes to warm everything on the bottom up. The tractor started like it was summer.

I now know several ways that I could have put a heater on the engine of the tractor. Then I did not know and could not have afforded it anyway.

I can remember having to take an old inter tube and cut it to fit inside of wagon tires so I could put the "good" tube inside of the "liner" so the cracks in the tire would not cut the tube and the tire would hold air. I still think of how dangerous that was. I do mean wagons that we hauled corn in. They where just on the farm but they still easily could have hurt someone or upset a wagon on the side hills we farm.

I can remember draining the water out of the JD "G" every night when plowing in the fall when it got to below freezing. Then putting warm water in the next day to plow with. Had spring water but no antifreeze. Plus the head casket would seep when it set a long time not running, like over winter. Then you would have water in the cylinder bore. So I never did have antifreeze in that tractor the whole time I owned it.

I also can remember it being so cold that I would put a pan I had made to "fit" around the carburetor on the JD "G". I would put some HOT water in it to make the gas vaporize better so I could hand start it easier if I had too.

On real cold mornings that I had to start the JD "G" to frost plow with, I would sometimes take a steel hog pan full of the hot coals out of the coal stove. I would put them right under the block and transmission housing. Then stand a piece of used metal sheeting on each side and a bale of straw on each end to hold the heat under the tractor. After maybe an half an hour the starter would spin it over if I had a "GOOD" battery in it. (Meaning one I had swiped out of something else I was not needing that morning)By hand if I did not have a good battery.

At one time I just had one good battery for three things. The JD "G" which had a magneto ignition on it, the pickup, and the old 1952 1 ton truck we hauled hogs in. If I needed two things running I had to start them on the good battery and then remove it for the other one. On the JD "G" that was easy. I just unhooked the generator wire so that it did not charge. Once it started the magneto did not need any power so I could take the battery out. If I killed it I usually could hand crank it while it was still warm. The old one ton had a battery that would hold charge while you where using it. It would even start after maybe an hour of setting but not if you let it set more than that. So If I could get close enought with the pickup I would just use the jumper cables on it. Many times though I had the ton truck in the granary because it was loaded with corn and I need it under cover. Then I would take the battery out of the pickup and carry it back to the old One ton and jump it that way. Remember on the Chevy trucks in the early 1950s the battery was under the passenger floor board not up front. My trickle battery charger would not charge it enought to start it.

So the long and short of this is I spent loads of time just to get things to work. We did not have much money and we had to make do. I think this is why I now make sure every little thing works on stuff. I may not buy new but it is going to function like new if it can be made too.

So what have you guys had to do or maybe even still have to do just to get buy????

I may not be young; Heck I may not be poor by some peoples standards; but I dang sure am cheap.

I think most of us older guys did what we had to do when we didn't have the money to do it right. So now the wife gets mad sometimes about how much I spend on parts. She thinks that even though we can afford to do it right I should just cobble something back together.

Rick

Remember in my younger,poorer, days I had a JD LA tractor, a 54 Ford pickup and a 60 something Corvair automatic. The batterys were no good in any of them. On Sunday I would start the LA with the crank, then pull the pick up and then use the pickup to pull the corvair because the tractor wouldn"t pull the Corvair fast enough to start it.(couldn"t afford jumper cables). This worked but I"ll never forget when later on I bought a new battery for the corvair and the tractor wouldn"t start so I had my wife pull the tractor for me. She knew that you had to go about 35mph to start the corvair so she took off intent on going 35 as I was shouting to stop and she never looked back until she got to 35mph.!! 35mph on a gravel road with chuck holes on a little JD LA is quite a ride, we still laugh about it EGBinOR

When I was young and had my first baby on the way, I needed a
car to get back and forth to work. I got one, paid $35 for it and
drove it home, but the automatic transmission was slipping so bad
by the time I got it home it wouldn't move itself until it cooled off.
(I did know it was bad when I bought it)

I borrowed enough money from my grandfather to get a junkyard
transmission and some fluid so I could change it.

It was February in Michigan.

I dug a spot in the snow, put some straw and plastic down and
pulled the car over it, jacked it up on jack stands then buried
three sides of the car in snow to block the wind.
That's where I changed the transmission.
In hind sight, the plastic was a bad idea because of the fluid leakage.

I swore then I would have a heated shop, the rest is history! LOL

Oldtanker: I know most of us have done these things. I just want to see what the different guys had done. I am always interested in learning how to do things.

As for the wife and buying parts. I have been VERY lucky in that department. Nether of my wives ever complained about that type of stuff. Matter of fact my first wife usually pushed me to spend a little more so things would be easier after we kind of got going a little. I was so used to going without anything I just kind of kept at it.

I think about our lives and what we had to do and then think about the people before us. I have a wedding pic of my grand parents and they are sitting down. In front of my grandfathers foot is a large chunk of wood. My grandmother told me that this was covering the holes in his shoes. I use to work for an old guy and he told me how good we had it growing up. I always wonder how they had time to cut wood for the winter do chores and harvest all their crops for the year. I use to cobble up stuff to make it work and my wife thinks I should still do it. Right now I have a tractor siting and the starter went bad. I have been messing with it for a month but I know soner or latter I will just take it in to the shop

When I was a kid we were so poor we couldn't even buy nails. The sheep panels were made from old fir tongue and groove flooring from an old house we tore down. They were all 12' long. Over the years as they got broken up they were torn apart and rebuilt. When I left home most of the panels were 4' long. Same nails, just straightened and reused. The shed roofs were from the house, cut in pieces and moved and put up on fir poles cut in the woods, We just patched in the saw cuts with shingles....James

Your heating the genset oil thing, reminded me of a story on History channel about the WWII Russian air force in winter. When done flying they drained the oil out of those fighter planes into a big can that kind of looked like a modern Nascar quick fuel can with the long spout.
They carried those cans in the building and lit the little kerossne burner on the bottom of the can. This kept the oil warm so it could be quickly poured into the fighter plane engine and crank it up, get going before the enemy arrived..

When I started farming, my first two "big" tractors were two Olivers bought cheap with blown up 310 engines, that I repowered with propane burning 454 Chevy V8's I still have both of them and use them yet for loader and auger duty more than 30 years later. My first two "big" combines IH 914 and 1482) were insurance salvage jobs that we rebuilt in the winter off season.
Amazing what you can "make do" with when money is needed to pay bills instead of buying new paint.

I know we were poor, but a lot of it was our parents grew up in the depression and they just wouldn't spend any money on things that wasn't essential. I can remember a neighbor south of us (they farmed the best 160 in the bottoms) carrying the battery out of a Super M Diesel on his shoulder over 3 miles to charge it. No one had a charger or jumper cables! Did we not know they made them. I guess we pulled everything to start it. It was a big deal when dad got a little Silver Beauty 10 amp battery charger. Then a air-compressor!

In my very rural area of ND, in winter the roads were poor and not well maintained. Up into the early 50's most farmers still had a team of horses. If many miles from town and if they had a car, the car usually was parked at the main road, as deep snow and poor roads prevented driving it to the farm.. Being mostly 6V and parked in windy cold below 0 winter weather, starting the car was neart impossible. For that once a week or once a month trip to town for supplies, the team of horses were harnessed and driven out to the car, they pulled the car to get it running, then took the horses back to the barn while allowing the car to warm up.

When the snow was too deep and roads impossible by car, the horses were hitched to a sled, wagon or even a stone boat and driven to town for supplies.

My father died when I was 10. I was the second to the youngest of 5 children. Times were lean. They really, truly were. We pulled together as a unit. My father's only family were back in the old country, those that weren't killed by Nazis. On my mother's side, her brothers and sisters closed the door to offering to help her. I remember some of them saying, "She'll be coming to us asking for help", but she never ever did, not once. I remember for instance, a Christmas dinner of macaroni and cheese with a can of tuna mixed in, but that wasn't bad and there were folks that had and still have less, much less. For the most part, Mom was the best father I pretty much never had, and God didn't she try.

These days, I'm in my 50's and hardly doing bad. I'm doing so well that I'm even fat. Mom is in her upper '70's and taken care of for the most part. In my lifetime, God willing, Mom will always be taken care of. I know what tough times were like. Mom grew up in the Depression, so she really knows what tough times were like, and then one day to lose her husband and most everything else, if God willing, she will never have to go through any of that anymore. There aint no slimeball politician local, state, or DC that can tell me squat about anything that I need or don't need. Not one of them, ever. Never asked one for help, never will, don't need or want their kind of help, never ever.

Mark

Just remember in the real old days when nails were expensive they would BURN down an old shed and go pick up the nails! Remember those old hand cut nails that look kinda like cement nails?

You certainly thrive on DRAMA, don't you, jd!

Like a teenager/schoolgrrrl on BooklFace!

You got some real good ideas for starting engines,thats for sure.

"You certainly thrive on DRAMA, don't you, jd!

Like a teenager/schoolgrrrl on BooklFace! "

Bob:
I really do not get where you get "drama" out of this post.

I wrote it today because George Marsh post, asking about having warm oil in his generator for easier starting, reminded me of what I had to do to get those old tractors to start with almost zero money.

Most of the things I did where just carried over from what guys had done before me.

My Grand Father talked about having to drain the water out of the cars and tractors during the Depression and WWI because they could not afford antifreeze or get it during the war. So doing that to my old JD "G" was nothing really new.

The heating of the engine oil is talked about in many of the Model "T" era car manuals. So there again nothing new.

I just wanted to have a discussion about what things other guys have done when they where/are on a tight budget. It is interesting to hear how different areas/regions may have done something different. So once again I do not see any "drama" in that.

As for the face book analogy. This forum is kind of a face book for old tractor guys. So that one is spot on.

Now the tone of your post seems to lead one to believe you don't think I should post anything other than tractor related stuff. Well this post actually is almost all tractor related.

If you remove all of the non direct tractor posts on this forum it would quickly revert to 10 or 50 posts on switching your tractor from 6 volt to 12 volt. Pretty soon it would all be repeated things as the old stuff is not really that complicated to have a lot of different stuff going on other than how is and was used.

So if you think what I am posting is drama then you are free to post things you want to talk about. It is a pretty open forum. GO FOR IT!!!!

Maybe Samm40 posts are drama too??? How about Larry's and Sweetfeet's pictures?? Are they drama too???

There is a real simple way for YOU to miss out on all the drama. JUST DO NOT READ OR RESPOND TO ANYTHING I POST!!!! That will stop 100% of your drama issues!!!

JD,This is a great post,and reminds me of things that my father and I have done,and that I had actually forgot about.Now as for Bobs post,please dont get worked up over someone thats not being very conciderate.I feel your a better person than this.If we read post that is directed toward us in a negative way were better off saying nothing.Its easy for some people to sit behind a key board and voice their opinon

jimmy

JD seller, i enjoy your posts as i can relate to most of it. I kinda have a saying that i have.

I have done so much with so little for so long that i can do almost anything with nothing.

jd just keep on talking some of the easiest money i made farming was what i call old farts advise . its a lot easier to know your going to make a mistake and if you do how to correct it.if you dont belive me look at all these posts saying i have done it or seen it done. or read jerry apps or jerry clower hmmm that gives me an idea wanta write a book make some money

Couple things; My Dads sawmill had a UD18 power unit (started on gas switched to diesel) on real cold days there was a big hand crank we used to help it turn over if batteries couldn't quite do it (no electric at mill that was about 12 miles from home). Also used old headlights(high or low burned out) to light the mill carriage so dad could see to saw on dark days(there was electric on the road in front of mill but then you had to pay for it).
One time neighbors burned all the wires out of their tractor because the fire they built under it to warm it up got a bit to high.
Our parents/grandparents that lived through the depression knew what it was like to have nothing mine saved everything because you just might need it someday. That rubbed off on me I switch batteries on machines I don't use everyday as they don't last if you don't use them all the time. There isn't any electric in my mill either but I have an inverter for lights.

Good post JD tons of experience on this site u would be surprised of the things I have learned from everyone keep posting these

I am about your age, but my parents grew up in the depression and never changed their way. It tears me up to see SILVER SPOONERS like Bob mock those who lived it and survived. Imagine if the current generation HAD to live this way without big brother.

The old guys around here all farmed like that too. Neighbours main tractor a Ford 5000 didn't have an electrics or a battery from 1980 to about 2005. We would park it on the ramp leading into the barn and roll start it. Block of wood under the loader to slide off as it settled quickly. Only had power steering in one direction as they couldn't afford to fix it.

Their Ford 3600 also didn't have a battery. We started that one with a chain from the pickup.

They would resharpen sickle sections down to little stumps too.

Working in my sisters old dairy barn which was owned by a different neighbour, there is not a single proper plug used in the waterer system, they would whittle a plug out of dry wood and hammer it it.

When the brothers were alive that ran it, (Scottish) the youngest brother broke his chainsaw file some time in the 70's during a winter of cutting pulp and was going to town which was a major trip so he came home with a package of files.

The oldest brother found out and raking him over the coals for wasting money. I noted cleaning up their shop they ran chains until the teeth came off. Pretty near 100 chains down to the chain with hair thick teeth on them, but still kept on the wall incase they needed to run it again!

JD Seller that paragraph about using inner tubes as liners to keep the good tube from getting a leak reminded me of my father talking about WWII. Said they couldn't get tires so he would put a bald tire inside of a tire with tread so that he would have a "working" tire. I still don't know how he managed that but he did and that kind of effort got them through the war.
I remember asking if that wasn't dangerous and the answer was "Yes but we didn't drive fast".
He died about about 10 years ago at 91.

My dad told me stories,his mom and aunt raised him,his dad left when all the children were young and only appeared once in a while when he was broke. My dad said grandma only cooked the cracked eggs or the little pullet eggs,all the rest were sold,and only could eat the skinny tougher asparagus,the prime ones were bunch up and sold. He hunted small game,and any excess was canned in jars,They never would slaughter a calf or cow,they were sold. My grandma could walk in the chicken yard and tell by looking at them which hen was not laying eggs? That one would get its head chopped on sunday.She was a great lady,when I was around 12,my dad sent me to help her take care of her garden,that is mostly were I learned to raise veggies,she never wasted one tomato,wrapped each green one at the end of the season in newspaper and put them in a brown bag.If they were very small she made green tomato relish and canned it in jars,I make some each fall in memory of her.

My first tractor was a good one, but had a cracked block because the old fellow who owned it left water in it. So, I got it cheap. It was a slow, external leak, so I continually patched it, and carried water in jugs on a carrier I made on the front of the tractor.
If I knew then what I know now I would have kept it and fixed it, rather than get rid of it.
As someone else mentioned below, I recall straightening and reusing nails when I first got my own place with old, broken down barns. My father even noted that. He had taken over a very successful multi generational farm, and kind of let it slide. Then mother started throwing her considerable bulk around, and demanded that her "baby", baby brother get everything.

For the first twenty five years of my farming career I never used new lumber for fixing buildings. The only thing I bought in a lumber yard was nails and a saw blade or two. I tore down corn cribs and houses for the lumber. In retrospect, I don't know why I tore down those houses because it was so much labor for so little good lumber. I cleaned the nails at the end of every day and had the lumber ready to stack in a small lumber yard of my own in the machine shed. I carried the lumber from the machine shed to wherever I needed it on my shoulder. Many, many tons of it. Firing up the loader tractor to haul it used fuel I didn't want to waste. Almost every building on the farm has been repaired with used lumber, carried there on my shoulder. I never threw away steel. It could be used later to make something. I made round bale feeders out of used well pipe, cutting it with a hack saw in the early days because I couldn't afford a band saw. It saved a lot of money but I'm not sure I would want to go back to those days. Right now I wouldn't mind tackling a building to tear down but I don't think the body would stand up to it anymore. (groan) Jim

Bob, there is an old saying, "If one man calleth the a "donkey", pay him no mind. If all men calleth the a donkey, get thee a saddle." Well, Bob, if"n I were you (God forbid) I would be out shopping for a saddle! Just sayin".............

Let me be the first to say "Amen" !

I remember my grandfather telling that they used alcohol to keep the radiator from freezing. He said that after they used the car they would put the car in the shed and then get some liquid out of the radiator and put it in a glass bottle and hang it in the tree out side of the shed. In the morning if the bottle was froze they added more alcohol.

Bob

We used to set a pan of burning corn cobs under the Ford 8N to get it started. In real cold weather we pulled the car with the team of horses to get it started so I could drive 10 miles to high school. I would go out at noon hour and start the car so it would warm up - and ensured that it would start again at 4 p.m.

One of the interesting thing I saw was a contractor in Montana doind work for the oil fields in winter in the late 60's. He had plumbed his pickup truck with quick couplings on the coolant system.

He would drive his pickup to the site, couple up the coolant couplings to the dozer engine and let the pickup circulate warm coolant through the dozer engine. Depending on outside temp, he could start the engine in 30 - 45 minutes while he sat in the truck and drank coffee from a thermos.

Dad never believed in buying battery's. Our tractors always a had chains dangling from the front axles and at the end the day you parked them so they could be pulled off. We had a GMC road tractor with a 318 detroit. The batteries were bad and Dad told the driver not to shut the truck off. Well that happened to be a Friday and that was the last truck in at the end of the day. Monday morning it was still sitting there running.
Ron

Grew up and lived in hill country (mountain to flatlanders) we parked the tractors on a hill and rolled them off rarely had a battery that would crank a tractor in the Winter,once we got one started then we could pull the rest and start them and used to pull the neighbors tone neighbor built his tractor shed so he could roll the tractors out down the hill in front to get them going.

Up until I came back from college, not a single piece of machinery on our place had a jack on it. In the area where we parked everything, there was a pile of blocking, and couple of big iron crow bars. You put a block under the machine, put another block beside it, and levered it up enough to slide a shim on top of the block. When I was smaller I sometimes would cheat and use a bottle jack, but that had to be gotten from the barn, and put back when I was finished.

In later years I have often been surprised at how far an implement jack will settle into the ground, compared to a foot and half long eight by eight block.

I once proposed to buy an implement jack for one of the most miserable items. Dad told me that was fifteen bucks we didn't have.

There wasn't a "real" draw pin on the place. Implements were hooked up with whatever big bolt was available, with no hairpin or anything else to keep them in. I know that both the manure spreader and the potato planter came unhooked at least once.

JD Seller, I always enjoy your posts, this one in particular. The young people coming along now will not be able to do much without a button to push. Most won' t know how to even grow a garden if things get real bad in the future. Most of us have it better than our younger days but we still need to conserve what we can and remember where we came from. My parents came through the depression and didn't have much cash but never got hungry either. I hope things don't ever get that bad again, but we need to be prepared if it does. Tommy

The younger generation needs to read some of these stories. Most of them wouldn't know how to get by if they had to make do for a while. Grandpa lost the farm in the 30's and went to work for the highway dept. Was pushing snow off the highway and slid off into the ditch. Went and borrowed a farmers F-20 to pull the truck out. Had to put water in the F-20. Got the F-20 stuck and killed it. Couldn't get it started so had to drain the water out. It was on such a angle that he was afraid all the water would not drain out.
Grandpa said that his bother had a 15-30 IH. In winter slid a tube under it with burning corncobs to heat the oil so could crank it.

I burned up the clutch in the first pickup I bought, a 89 f-250, and yes I am a bit younger most of you guys. Had no concrete slab to,work on or tranny jack to work with so managed to get the tranny balanced on about 4 bottle jacks we had at the house then pushed the truck away from them tranny. It was completly stupid but I was teaching myself and was all I could could think of. I also take offence to some of you guys saying how lazy and stupid the younger generation is. We just use different tools, the younger generation is going to be much more versed on a lot more complicated equipment than was ever dreamed of in the 60"s. They will be able to do this because information is much more accessible. It will be different and everybody will need to adapt. I will say this, I am impressed with some of you older guys using computers and the internet, lot of the guys I know can"t turn on a cell phone. I guess what I am saying is things are not better or worse they are just different.

Whether it become necessity, is the only option or is just inherent because that is what must be done to survive, or to keep things going, much of this improvisation ability is being lost today.

I've had the one battery fits all, and a few similar things, as well as retrofitting, modifying, and or making a few parts, because it could not be found at the time, too expensive or something else prohibitive. Fortunately, I've never really been in dire situations whereas, like your tractors, it has to run, livestock are at high risk in inclement, or extreme weather such as subzero temperatures, but I've had frozen pipes, manure spreaders and or a taste of these things to at least know. A person makes a choice, either give up or improvise, the latter always being significant extra work LOL ! Like has been said many times, real mechanic, or a parts replacer, there is a difference.

I will say the last year I worked at our place, that winter weather with all the snow we got in the winter of '10-'11, with how the place was set up, being run with bare minimum resources, 2 open station tractors, every little thing being a hard fought battle to gain one inch, only to lose 3 feet by the next day, was enough for me to make the decision I've had enough. Sometimes its a good choice, I'd reconsider if I could set things up the way I see best, making things manageable, not talking high expense, just reorganized, priorities set and objectives achieved to work smarter, prepare for things like a harsh winter and utilize things, like ones tractors so that there is less problems. In my case, it was overwhelming, between the chores, available help, vast amount of things that must be done, then clearing snow, and some catastrophic problem that trumps all others, and immediately stops those things, so you are further behind, while shoring up a roof to prevent collapse, or dealing with a horse that has colic and will die if you don't get it to distance equine medical facilities, with an old truck pulling your trailer, and its sub zero, trailer has 3 feet of snow on the roof, horse is barely staying up, you're cracking the whip, if he goes down he's done and you're out a ton of money, as well as the potential sale which the farm depends on to survive, sometimes there is no improvisation, its just smart to get out, start over if you desire, only doing so by making drastic changes.

Having to depend on a 6000 would be a hardship in itself.

would love to see pictures of your repowered tractors

Oh good post. My dad was born in 1934 so was exposed to the depression and WWII era. That generation simply did not spend money that they did not have period. It was a matter of survival and survivors they were and they did it without Welfare and Food Stamps often at great personal sacrifice. There is a reason they are referred to as the greatest generation. Deep down I think it is the one reason I have such an affinity for the old antique tractors as it is a way of sorta connecting me to a generation that I admire and respect.

But to get back on topic. Starting our tractors was always a chore even in warm weather. The 430 case diesel was parked on a hill so it could be roll started. If no hill then it was pulled with Dad's 1969 chevy rust bucket truck with 200k on the odometer. Engine and tranny had both been replaced with salvage units from cars. Trash bags were used to stuff in the holes of the floorboards or you would get water splashing up on you when driving the truck in the rain.

Use the case 430 to then pull start the JD 730 (that thing took 4 batteries). Use the JD 730 to pull start the IH 1066. Dad finally broke down and bought some batteries for the IH 1066 as I got older and was more interested in cars, girls, etc. than farming.

That all said, all the years dad and I spent together cobbling his junk together would have been so much easier with a welder. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I got my first welder. The repairs that dad and I could have made together with that welder if only he had still been alive.......

thats true! Or a JD 2010!

In the fifty's We were so poor we did not have tractors,cars or any engine for that matter so we didn't have to worry about getting the chit started either
Everything was still done by hand or with a horse.
milking was done by hand and there were 20 of them critters
We had no electric or Nat gas either
Lighting was with kerosine lamp, heat was coal and wood.
Washing was still done scrubbing on a board.
I personally bought the first tractor, a stuck Allis B when i was 12.
There weren't even any tools on our place but an wore out sumptin wrench, a screw driver a crowbar a waterpump pliers and a couple hamers, between them and an old in complete socket set i borrowed from a neighbor i got the old girl running.
Poor Dad said it was gonna be a money drain.
He was right.

I used to have a 6000.

It was my job to straighten the used nails when I was young . I remember buying cans of used nails at auctions .

So many of these stories bring back memories. My Dad had grown up during the depression with no father. He was a city kid and learned a lot of survival techniques. He was the oldest of 3 kids, with his mother working way too many hours as a salad chef for one of the big hotels in Milwaukee. Food and clothing (and rent payments) were always issues in their home. Dumpster diving was honed to a fine art. But education was set as a high priority to gain a higher spot in life. He built his own radios from scraps and used that knowledge to become an amateur radio operator and then a commercial radio operator in the CCCs, and the Army, then after WW2 he used the GI bill to get a University degree in electrical engineering.

So us 3 boys grew up under the shadow of the depression, but with a high respect for education. As a university student in the early 60s, I worked many part time jobs (maybe 30 total), expanding my knowledge of the working world and learning that working for an hourly wage is a ticket to continued near poverty. So I learned how to contract jobs.

But I'll never forget the near poverty that my brothers and I grew up with and were struggling to escape. My first car was a 1955 Plymouth (last year of the 6V electrical system). Dad would not allow us to plug in an engine heater because it would raise his electric bill. He had survived all his years without a warmed up auto engine, so we had to also. The old Plymouth flathead 6 had a somewhat decent battery, but the engine was so worn that it could not turn it over fast enough to start on the frigid Minnesota mornings. So my solution was to bring the battery into the house every night to keep it warm and thus the car would start. The worn engine allowed the pistons to bang against the upper cylinder wear ridges when driven too fast, like passing a truck on 2 lane road. So I bought my first set of Craftsman sockets when the pistons broke the upper rings and sent them through the exhaust pipes. I bought 2 new pistons with rings from Mont Wards, used a friend's ridge reamer to get rid of the ridges, and installed the 2 new pistons and a new head gasket. The engine ran fine, so I quickly sold it and bought a 58 Plymouth for $50. It had a lot of rust, but a 12V electrical system so it would start on most winter days. It had the same 230 cu in flathead 6 which meant a lot of clutch slipping to get it going. So I learned how to replace clutch discs without a tranny jack in 3 to 4 hours total on a Friday night. I needed the car again for the weekend jobs of being an industrial spy for Conoco Oil, and being a church janitor Sunday night. If the oil company job was slack, I painted apartments for some apartment company. That paid $15 for a full 2 bedroom apt, and I'd get that done in 10 hours.

Hundreds of more stories related to survival and near poverty, but I'll save them for the grandkids.

The interesting point (I think) is the big variety of survival skills and techniques that were developed by farm kids, city kids, and suburban kids. In all social strata there were people who were well off and others who were scratching hard to survive. My real eye opener was a full summer that I worked on an Indian reservation in northern Minnesota. The kids who grew up there really had intense poverty, and probably no dream of escaping it.

Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Paul in MN

My GrandFather never got out of the Depression mindset He spent the rest of his lift looking for another. The would spend $5 three times on a jackleg fix that still didn't work. Instead of $10 once to fix something right.

Thank you, JD, for opening this subject. I always enjoy your posts. Don't let a "heckler" bother you.

On starting tractors, I have a cousin who had a D-17 Allis maybe 40 years ago with batteries too old to hold a charge. Being alone, he had to figure out a way to start the tractor when he wanted to use it. He had an older Dodge pickup that he made an attachment to a back wheel connecting it to the PTO of the D-17. With the pickup wheel jacked off the ground, he would rev the engine on the pickup and slip the clutch, because it's tough turning the D-17 engine through the gearing of the PTO. I suppose, but don't know, if he could just put the pick-up in neutral or what when the D-17 finally popped off.

Neighbor had a IH hydro with bad battery that he would pull the battery out of something, start it, and put the battery back. My grandpa was helping him one day and blew up a battery. He went and bought new batteries for all the neighbor's tractors that day.

We had a NH skidsteer that threw a rod. An uncle found all the pieces and epoxied the block back together. It ran long enough to load, unload, drive out to the sale line, then drive back to the yard and reload. May be still running for all I know.

JD,I was raised on a small farm in Northern VA,My uncle owned it and he was very wealthy,but my father watched over the farm for rent and he beleived in the old fashion ways.We had tractors sitting in the barn but dad always said fuel was high and child labor was cheap.I remember dad hated cedar trees,and he would eather pull them up or cut them down.One day we cut a couple large cedars down and dad needed some gate post,I beleive they were 16in in dia.and several hundred yards from the barn.Instead of dad using a tractor to bring them to the barm he went and got a 2 man log hook and made us kids drag them.Every thing was manuel labor.We had a Farmall sa,and dad was to tight to buy a battery or actually to stubbron to ask my uncle,so we hand cranked it,I remember that thing kicking me to the next field.Mom and dad raised chickens each year to butcher,and I was so proud of him becaues he did a really nice job on building a off the ground verry large chicken pen,at the very last he decided it needed a covering over the door in case it was raining and he went and found a old peice of tin and just nailed it up,it looked terrible,The stories go on and on

jimmy

Old timer cattle dealer/auctioneer around here when I was a kid said they were so poor they had to jerk off the dog to feed the cat!