My daughter, Alicia, is starting to want to drive. As soon as we are headed out of town toward
home, she starts asking. “Can I
drive?” She is pretty relentless and
other than the fact that it’s a little stressful, I cannot think of a reason
not let her drive! She is actually a
pretty good driver, beings how she is our little dare devil. Faith is not so quick to want to learn, but its
coming. It is a rite of passage with all
kids, despite their parents’ wishes!
All this got me to thinking about when I started learning to
drive. When we lived in Loveland
Colorado, my grandpa had a farm. It was
a pretty good definition of a family farm, my uncles worked on the farm right
along with him (when they finished with any outside job they might have.). When haying time came, a trailer was pulled
out to the field and everyone either threw bales on the trailer or stacked. My brother and I’s job was to drive the
tractor while the adults stacked/threw hay.
We couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old, so we were scrawny
little things. My uncle George used to
put the tractor in low and put one of us on, and away we would go. Seems simple, doesn’t it?
Add to this story the fact if we wanted to stop, we didn’t
have enough weight in our behinds to push the clutch down….or that the first
few times we were scared to turn the steering wheel! Oh the fear, that first time! I remember I was excited and scared all at
the same time! My goal at the time was
to be just like my hero...my Grandpa. I
was going to be a farmer when I grew up!
So every time I had a chance to get on a tractor, I jumped at it. Of course at that age…opportunities were few
and far between! One of my favorite
times was always haying time…..
