My, how times have changed!!

Rich'sToys · Feb 6, 2017

I ran across this last week in one of my magazines. As I read it I couldn't help but wonder how many of today's modern do-gooders would get their shorts in a knot if some company were to run an ad like this today!

rrlund · Feb 6, 2017

Ask Tyne Morgan on US Farm Report. She caught the wrath of God from some viewers for an editorial comment favoring kids working.

Rick in Iowa · Feb 6, 2017

they sure wouldn't like grampa having me steer m between rows of hay bales while he loaded bale trailer when I was five.low gear no throttle speed.if he hollered whoa I kicked the switch.got to end he jumped on drawbar to turn.thought I was hot stuff helping grampa. now days kids don't even go out the door except to go to school and learn to be lazy and stupid.my birthday present when I was ten was a new four tine pitchfork.

Keith Molden · Feb 6, 2017

And we wonder why everything is like it is. I don't care about the do-gooders, my grandson and 2 of my grand daughters were all driving tractors and equipment by the time they were 8 years old, some with tricycle front ends on hills too, and driving the truck when they could see over the dash. They are all good drivers now and none of them are scared of a little work. Call me Old Fashioned, but at least they wont have to have surgery on their thumbs from playing video games (they have all had them but preferred their horses and getting outside to them. If you don't like this post, then I guess you probably won't be stopping by to help with the hay anyway. LOL

Eldon (WA) · Feb 6, 2017

We had that same combination when I was a kid...that spreader was one of the few things that my dad repainted...

BarnyardEngineering · Feb 6, 2017

I experienced the perfect example of it yesterday.

My 5 year old nephew loves helping me and his grandfather with chores on Sunday afternoons. We were throwing down hay and he decided he wanted to climb the hay pile and help me knock bales down.

Now back when I was 5, you were *EXPECTED* to climb the pile and knock bales down. That was the kid's job.

Well yesterday, "grampa" was having none of it. Nope, no, uh-uh, no way, nada... Since I was up on the pile already, I overruled him. The kid had a blast "helping" me, and nobody got hurt. I lost a boot somewhere in the hay pile and didn't notice it until I got to the bottom, but other than that, no issues.

Rich'sToys · Feb 6, 2017

(quoted from post at 09:36:50 02/06/17) they sure wouldn't like grampa having me steer m between rows of hay bales while he loaded bale trailer when I was five.low gear no throttle speed.if he hollered whoa I kicked the switch.got to end he jumped on drawbar to turn.thought I was hot stuff helping grampa. now days kids don't even go out the door except to go to school and learn to be lazy and stupid.my birthday present when I was ten was a new four tine pitchfork.

I did the same thing at about that age, only it was a Ford 8N. I could work the clutch pedal by myself. But on the UB Moline I could not reach the clutch pedal from the seat. I had to jump down onto the platform and push the clutch in, while hanging on to the steering wheel, and Dad came up from behind and put it in and out of gear.

Billy Shafer · Feb 6, 2017

When I was a kid on the farm. If you didn't work you didn't eat. Dad put wooden blocks on an old Farmall so I could drive it. I was doing brake jobs by 12.Most kids today can't open a door without help.

55 50 Ron · Feb 6, 2017

How old would you estimate that boy to be? I will guess 12 + or - 1.

I was driving an MM "R" at age 9.

Drove a 1929 International 1 ton truck at age 11 hauling grain to the elevator 3 miles away.

Ron

donjr · Feb 6, 2017

I cut my teeth on a '39 B and a 50 when I was 8!! That kid was kept off ov them until he was almost old and gray.....

JOCCO · Feb 6, 2017

I may lean the other way on this one. I sure would not want to see a child put in situations they were not able to handle. I also feel its maturity not really age. Seen a 16 year old more with it that a 23 year old.

Bruce from Can. · Feb 6, 2017

By the time I was 13 , I was handy enough with a tractor that the fella down the
road hired me for the summer to cut ,rake and bale hay. They were milking 50 cows
in two barns , and had another farm for young stock.By the end of summer , I was
almost glad to go back to school, for a few days off.

John Deere D · Feb 6, 2017

I have no idea what my age was when I asked my father to attach wood blocks to the 8N clutch pedal and change the PTO lever so I could reach it.My father was on a binder with a CARLSON Drive (Converts the binder to PTO powered.) I had to look straight ahead and listen for any directions!
When I turned 9,the hand clutch on the Neighbours JD "D" was the beginning of my upper ARMS maturing!

sammydwm · Feb 6, 2017

It was expected back in the day...I remember steering the 560 while dad baled when I was 5, couldn't reach the pedals from the seat had to stand to hit the clutch....
when I was 8 we got a Case 800, I could reach the pedals by then.....
I did have to attend a class to get a certificate to help the neighbor back in 80 though..

Bhunt · Feb 6, 2017

They tried to change the law on the age kids can be driving Tractors here right now there is no age limit. It didn't go so well it was dropped in days.
Byron

4wdtom · Feb 6, 2017

All of us who grew up running tractors grew up more responsible than the kids now that only run their cell phone.

grandpa Love · Feb 6, 2017

My son asked for ,and got a cub last year
for his 14th birthday. Drives it every day.
Gotta get him a belly mower. He wants to cut
the field at church this summer.

notjustair · Feb 6, 2017

I remember scooting clear to the front of the seat to get the 856 clutch in. The funny part was that if you jumped that clutch you might as well
have killed the family milk cow. You were not only expected to help, but you were expected to do it RIGHT after you were taught only once.
Never mind you couldn't reach all of the controls. I'm sure there were those that rebelled, but every kid I know of thrived on the responsibility
and took it carefully and seriously. I thought nothing of walking home to get the tractor to pull the school bus out of the mud, and the driver must
have trusted me to do it, cause it happened more than one time. I remember pulling out the big bus with a Ford 8N one time because
everything else was out in the field or hooked up. I was awful proud of myself on that one until dad told me he had done it once, too the same
year. I guess I wasn't the only one with the skills!

I can see he's proud in that drawing. More proud than those kids that "beat" a video game I bet.

tractorguy2 · Feb 6, 2017

I was going to share a photo of me diving dad's 'new' 706 when I
was in the second grade. I can't find it. I though that tractor
was Huge! Later I use to disk wheat stubble with the 706 and a ten
ft disk. I use to get up at 6:30am to make the day last longer!

Mike in Wisconsin · Feb 6, 2017

My Dad had me driving the 8N ford raking hay when I was 8. When I was 9 I was cultivating corn with the Ford and the 2 row three point
cultivator. Cultivating was something that Dad was very fussy about and getting to do that job was a " honor" to be trusted with. Also when I
was 9 both Dad and I would be plowing, Dad on a 60 John Deere and me with the old A John Deere. Man was that covering ground, two 3 bottom 16
inch plows chasing each other up and down the fields!

RusselAZ · Feb 6, 2017

No ROPS, likely no power steering, no fenders, going up a hill in overgrown clover hiding the badger holes. No dead man switch.

Yeap, things have sure changed for the better and I have wondered for years why it took so long! What is really sad is the lack of this kind of work for our young people
to experience. My Dad's tractors did all have fenders. He put me on a LA case when I was seven. Likely the safest tractor ever. Hand clutch, single brake. Sat down
inside the command center. The first couple years we worked in the same fields.

oleclint · Feb 6, 2017

I was kinda tall for my age, of 6 yrs , I was driving our VAC CASE before I started first grade. Graduated to the CASE SC by the time I was eight. clint

NEKS · Feb 6, 2017

When I started driving dad's WD Allis had to slide my butt off the seat to change gears. Had to get my tail bone up against the front of the seat to push the clutch pedal in far enough. All the while grinning like that boy in the picture.

GaryinKs · Feb 7, 2017

That boy on the John Deere 'B' is in no more danger and less of a threat to others then all the teenage
girls I see texting and driving.

My, how times have changed!!

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