The Jasper County soil wasn’t the same color soil as I was used to back at our garden in central Illinois, but it was the homeplace of my beautiful mother and I loved it there. Farming was everyday work with no guarantees, but life was pure, simple, and literally rooted.
Grandpa Harris wore bib overalls every day and Grandma had fried bologna and eggs for us at breakfast. I’d watched my Grandpa plant corn in June in previous years, but this year was special…I was told I got to drive the pickup this year and now I was feeling 10 years tall.
The 1964 Ford F100 had a 3-speed transmission and I’d studied hard the movements of my Grandpa’s hands and feet as he worked the clutch, gas, and three-on-the-tree shifting motions of what made that lime green machine behave. We dropped the heavy tailgate and secured it on both sides with chains, then loaded the seed bags. All the while he was telling me stories of his beloved draft horses of years past. “Climb in boy” Grandpa said, “this is your year to drive”.
My heart was pounding hard as I grabbed that huge steering wheel and I couldn’t quite see over the top of it, but I could see under it just fine. Then came the words that changed my perspective that day and every day since… “you’re going to learn the hard stuff first. Push in the clutch, shift it into reverse, and ease off the clutch slowly and when you feel it catch - just feather the gas.” I tried that, but I killed the motor three times before I was driving backward down the dirt lane to the corn field.
We filled the four row planter boxes with seed corn and he climbed upon his Allis Chalmers tractor and gave me his directions again. “You can drive anywhere on this farm you want as long as you go backwards. Just be back here at the end row when I get back”.
After 3 more days of planting that field we were nearing the final rows. It was nearly time for supper and after lunch I had dressed two hens from the chicken house for Grandma while Grandpa was taking his nap on his “day bed” on the screened porch. Yes, we were having fried chicken for supper and Grandma had even mentioned a dessert was possible if she had enough time and enough sugar.
The day only got better when Grandpa said “Put it in low drive gear this time and look ahead. I think you’ll find going forward now is going to be a piece of cake”. I think Grandpa was looking forward to supper too.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Curt Sinclair is the 4-H Youth Development Extension Specialist for Shooting Sports and Environmental Education. He received his B.S. in Forestry from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1982 and his Master's in Recreation Resource Administration from North Carolina State University in 1988.