- Joined
- Mar 7, 2021
- Messages
- 103
- Reaction score
- 111
- Points
- 43
- Age
- 75
My Guardian Angel's save of an Indiana farmer's grandson..................
Who still regrets bumping the gear selector from 2nd, as Grand Dad's good suggestion, up to 3rd.
At 16 I was nearly thrown off a 1953 John Deere 60 pulling a 16 foot Kewanee Keen Kutter disc and a clod busting roller.
After hitting a washed out hidden sink hole in a weedy (thick, tall foxtail) picked wide edge of an unharvested corn field. My grand dad's farm tractor's long green hood went up towards the blue sky. Besides the instant bump up, everything was cool! When the front two wheels came down transferring all that energy to the rear of the cab-less tractor my body left the seat upwards of 3 + feet!
I wonder if I saved myself thru sheer luck? Or was it a helping hand guiding me to fall to the right side? Having the right side's long clutch handle put in front of my face for me to grab onto? There was no such handle to the left side! For too many seconds the big angled bars for tire treads were spinning largely mere inches from my T shirt!
My left hand was still gripped like it was glued to the steering wheel. When I released the life saving clutch handle, it was time to grab the wheel "finally" with both hands!
I had to turn it hand over hand to hit the end of the Roll-A-Matic's short tie rod! I HAD TO STOP the steering wheel's turn to get back into the big yellow seat! In turning the tractor so directly West it was heading me towards a 40' wide 10' deep ditch! Tall un picked corn stalks were hitting me like a big brush coming across the axle. The wheel finally stopped turning and I pulled myself back into the seat! And then a fast turn left I went! Whew! I am getting out of breath retelling this!
So in closing, I think it was my Guardian Angel who let me fall right handing me that 3 foot tall clutch handle with the big ball on top!
60-70 feet of corn was knocked down.
But somehow, with my spirit guides help, I stayed alive sideways across the driver's platform and got safely re seated! Plus that ole Black River did not receive a John Deere 60 tractor with me on it!
MK IV ∆=
At 16 I was nearly thrown off a 1953 John Deere 60 pulling a 16 foot Kewanee Keen Kutter disc and a clod busting roller.
After hitting a washed out hidden sink hole in a weedy (thick, tall foxtail) picked wide edge of an unharvested corn field. My grand dad's farm tractor's long green hood went up towards the blue sky. Besides the instant bump up, everything was cool! When the front two wheels came down transferring all that energy to the rear of the cab-less tractor my body left the seat upwards of 3 + feet!
I wonder if I saved myself thru sheer luck? Or was it a helping hand guiding me to fall to the right side? Having the right side's long clutch handle put in front of my face for me to grab onto? There was no such handle to the left side! For too many seconds the big angled bars for tire treads were spinning largely mere inches from my T shirt!
I had to turn it hand over hand to hit the end of the Roll-A-Matic's short tie rod! I HAD TO STOP the steering wheel's turn to get back into the big yellow seat! In turning the tractor so directly West it was heading me towards a 40' wide 10' deep ditch! Tall un picked corn stalks were hitting me like a big brush coming across the axle. The wheel finally stopped turning and I pulled myself back into the seat! And then a fast turn left I went! Whew! I am getting out of breath retelling this!
So in closing, I think it was my Guardian Angel who let me fall right handing me that 3 foot tall clutch handle with the big ball on top!
60-70 feet of corn was knocked down.
MK IV ∆=
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