The Gibson tractor.
When we lived in Mesa Dad had an old Gibson tractor with a blade on the front. It had a hand crank that went in the hole on the front to start it. I remember seeing movies with Dad, Jordan, and Jim in the yard of Wanda and Jordan’s home on Greenway in Phoenix cracking and eating pecans around the old tractor. Jordan had been using it to level up the yard.
Jim told me when we lived in Mesa. He would take a lunch. Dad would drop him off when he went to work, and Jim would spend the day cleaning up weeds and leveling the property where Dad built the trailer court in Phoenix. He used the old Gibson. Dad would pick him up when he got off of work. He said they had trouble with the transmission and that Dad and Malloy replaced the transmission and the rear end with one out of an old truck. Of course the rear end had to be cut down. Jim told how much that helped and how much slower it would go and how much more power it had.
The old Gibson was the first tractor I drove. It was in Atkinville at the farm. Dad had taken the tractor up to the head of the ditch to see if he could use it in the river to build up a dam to get the water in the ditch. I had to take Doc and Bill the team on the wagon. We spent all day working on the ditch. The tractor didn’t work real well in the sand as I remember. When it started to get dusk we were finally ready to go home. As I remember the tractor got stuck when dad tried to pull out of the river so we used the team and pulled it out of the river and on to the bank. Instead of going west the way we had come when we pulled out of the river we went east and hit the main road to the Farm. I guess I must have been about 7. Dad was on the tractor and I had the team. Well dad took off and I was following in the distance. I was not allowed to take the team at faster than a walk so I got way behind. Dad stopped when he got to the top of the hill. It is still there today along the west side of freeway. When I caught up to him dad put me on the tractor and told me push down on this peddle to stop. He put the tractor in what I figure was high gear and told me to let out the clutch slow. Well that was the extent of my instruction. He may have said to just steer it down the road. I let out the clutch and I was off. What an adventure. I started to drift off to the right side of the road so I cranked the steering wheel to the left. Now I was headed off the left side of the road. I felt like I was flying down the road just criss crossing back and forth from one side to the other. It was all I could do just to keep it from going in the bar pit on either side of the road. I was in a panic by now so I pushed down the clutch. I didn’t stop but at least I slowed down and coasted to a stop with me still criss crossing back and forth. Well here I was scared to death standing on the clutch with the tractor running. I wasn’t the only one who was panicking. When Dad got there with the team they had been on a dead run with sweat just running off of them. Dad took the tractor out of gear and I went back to the team and he took the tractor the rest of the way home. He said I was afraid you were going to tip over. That was the farthest thing from my mind. In all my memories I only remember a couple of times that dad ran the team on the wagon. That was something you just didn’t do. It was ok to trot but you didn’t run them it was an unwritten rule. Looking back I think Dad must have cringed whenever he watched an old western movie with the stage coach and horses at a dead run. He always had trouble watching movies because he would say you can tell it is fake.
Jim told me when we lived in Mesa. He would take a lunch. Dad would drop him off when he went to work, and Jim would spend the day cleaning up weeds and leveling the property where Dad built the trailer court in Phoenix. He used the old Gibson. Dad would pick him up when he got off of work. He said they had trouble with the transmission and that Dad and Malloy replaced the transmission and the rear end with one out of an old truck. Of course the rear end had to be cut down. Jim told how much that helped and how much slower it would go and how much more power it had.
The old Gibson was the first tractor I drove. It was in Atkinville at the farm. Dad had taken the tractor up to the head of the ditch to see if he could use it in the river to build up a dam to get the water in the ditch. I had to take Doc and Bill the team on the wagon. We spent all day working on the ditch. The tractor didn’t work real well in the sand as I remember. When it started to get dusk we were finally ready to go home. As I remember the tractor got stuck when dad tried to pull out of the river so we used the team and pulled it out of the river and on to the bank. Instead of going west the way we had come when we pulled out of the river we went east and hit the main road to the Farm. I guess I must have been about 7. Dad was on the tractor and I had the team. Well dad took off and I was following in the distance. I was not allowed to take the team at faster than a walk so I got way behind. Dad stopped when he got to the top of the hill. It is still there today along the west side of freeway. When I caught up to him dad put me on the tractor and told me push down on this peddle to stop. He put the tractor in what I figure was high gear and told me to let out the clutch slow. Well that was the extent of my instruction. He may have said to just steer it down the road. I let out the clutch and I was off. What an adventure. I started to drift off to the right side of the road so I cranked the steering wheel to the left. Now I was headed off the left side of the road. I felt like I was flying down the road just criss crossing back and forth from one side to the other. It was all I could do just to keep it from going in the bar pit on either side of the road. I was in a panic by now so I pushed down the clutch. I didn’t stop but at least I slowed down and coasted to a stop with me still criss crossing back and forth. Well here I was scared to death standing on the clutch with the tractor running. I wasn’t the only one who was panicking. When Dad got there with the team they had been on a dead run with sweat just running off of them. Dad took the tractor out of gear and I went back to the team and he took the tractor the rest of the way home. He said I was afraid you were going to tip over. That was the farthest thing from my mind. In all my memories I only remember a couple of times that dad ran the team on the wagon. That was something you just didn’t do. It was ok to trot but you didn’t run them it was an unwritten rule. Looking back I think Dad must have cringed whenever he watched an old western movie with the stage coach and horses at a dead run. He always had trouble watching movies because he would say you can tell it is fake.
1 comment:
This comment is from Jim
“That Gibson Tractor had a 2 cylinder air cooled Wisconsin engine.
The weeds at the existing trailer park I was clearing were much taller than the tractor and I,
and I was always worried that it would catch fire.”
FYI The property had been a trailer park many years prior.
We (I) cleaned it up, dug up the old sewer lines,
Deepened the trenches and we put in a new sewer system.
There were already restrooms in the center of the property,
We restored them and kept them.
Mom made me tomato sandwiches for lunch.
By lunch the tomato’s had kind of cooked in the mayonnaise,
Those were some of the best I’ve ever had. I still love tomato sandwiches
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