11215 Oakland Drive Kalamazoo, MI 49002
At this time I was a youngster of 7 or 8 years old and walking a
mile to school, and living on a farm with my mother and step
dad.
In those days farmers got together and exchanged work, and kept
a book of what work they owed and also what work was owed to them.
When a farmer did have to hire outside help the going rate was a
$1.00 per day, plus 3 meals a day, starting at sun up, finishing at
sundown, give or take and hour or two.
Well, the fond recollections of a youngster on the farm was
harvest time (threshing time), especially if he were young enough
to not get too involved with the labor end of it.
The farmers in the neighborhood had gone together years before
and purchased a small thresher, which was powered by a Fordson
Tractor that belonged to one of the farmers. It was very small,
handfed by a man who stood on the front of the machine and cut the
bands on the bundles which we always had stored in the mows of the
barn. There was a straw carrier on the rear, so about 4 men were
required to build the straw-stack, and also 2 or 3 men to carry
grain from the barn to the granary.
Well, it was getting about the time of year for this rig to come
to our farm. Now my own father had passed away when I was less than
3 years old. Mother could not afford to keep the family of 4
children together, so an uncle had taken two of my brothers to
raise and a sister had gone with an aunt and I being the youngest
stayed with my mother.
The older brother, after he graduated from high school left our
uncle’s farm and went to work in a factory where there was more
money than in farming.
Well, my step dad needed to hire some outside help for threshing
day, so he got in contact with my brother in town and said,
‘Floyd, if you can get away from your job in town for this
given day I will make you a present of that 1919 Model T Ford
touring car that sits in the buggy shed.’
Well, that brother of mine jumped at the chance he did not own
an automobile. He came out and helped thresh, shared in the feast
(that the threshers always had at dinner time) and that evening by
lantern light went to the buggy shed, pumped up those 30 by 3′
tires, put gasoline in the tank, got a hot-shot battery and drove
his day’s wages back to town.
I would put the year about 1926 or 1927, as I know Dad had a new
1926 Model T Ford and Mother a 1925.
