What age is too young...

[RDCanecutter 26476]

39 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

I assume you forced the survivors to bury the ones who died. 

Far as I know, we got lucky.

I do wonder about that one kid from the next street over that I clocked in the head with a potato-sized rock. He was probably young enough that other parts of the brain took over for any damaged areas. I know mine did.

[Gatorubet 30324]

18 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

I do wonder about that one kid from the next street over that I clocked in the head with a potato-sized rock. He was probably young enough that other parts of the brain took over for any damaged areas. I know mine did.

[drt 640]

I grew up riding around on the tractor and was driving it as soon as I could stand up and reach far enough to push in the clutch. 
 

First time I drove the truck without anyone in the cab with me was because the cattle got across the creek that served as the back property line. We got all the cows back in the trailer and shuttled to our pasture easily but the bull was not happy. Plan was to open the gate to the trailer and start rolling so we’d get some distance quickly from the bull. Dad told me “pop the clutch and give it gas, it’s a diesel so you can’t kill it. Don’t stop until the bull stops chasing us. I don’t want to get hurt.” I was somewhere between 10 and 12.

Farm life was fun and a hell of a lot of work. My kids don’t get exposure to that, unfortunately. 

[Ten Bears 2483]

On 11/22/2024 at 2:48 PM, baboso said:

My dad had me out bushhogging the pasture when I was 12.

I grew up farming and ranching waaay out in the sticks.  I plowed my first field by myself at 9 years old.  I had my own pickup at 13, a 66 Chevy stepside with the shitty inline 6.  The main reason I had a pickup at that age was so I could go plow without my dad or mom having to drop me off and pick me up out of the fields.  I had my own horse at 8 and was expected to help work cattle on him at that time.  I broke my first horse at 13.  That fucking horse kicked me square in the chest, stopping my heart for what my dad says was an eternity but he guesses it was actually a full minute before the old ticker started beating again.

My parents would be in jail for all of that these days.

[Horn Draoi 256]

My grandmother taught me to drive at 10 so I could wheel her up Highway 70 from Clarendon to Pampa so “we” could go shopping in her ‘64 Catalina.  “Keep the needle under that 70 mark.”  When my grandfather found out, he stuck me on a tractor.  Hell, I bought my first vehicle at 13-$100 for a ‘37 Ford pickup.

[gsoda3 3283]

3 hours ago, Ten Bears said:

I grew up farming and ranching waaay out in the sticks.  I plowed my first field by myself at 9 years old.  I had my own pickup at 13, a 66 Chevy stepside with the shitty inline 6.  The main reason I had a pickup at that age was so I could go plow without my dad or mom having to drop me off and pick me up out of the fields.  I had my own horse at 8 and was expected to help work cattle on him at that time.  I broke my first horse at 13.  That fucking horse kicked me square in the chest, stopping my heart for what my dad says was an eternity but he guesses it was actually a full minute before the old ticker started beating again.

My parents would be in jail for all of that these days.

 

1 hour ago, Horn Draoi said:

My grandmother taught me to drive at 10 so I could wheel her up Highway 70 from Clarendon to Pampa so “we” could go shopping in her ‘64 Catalina.  “Keep the needle under that 70 mark.”  When my grandfather found out, he stuck me on a tractor.  Hell, I bought my first vehicle at 13-$100 for a ‘37 Ford pickup.

That's wild. How old are you?

[Horn Draoi 256]

39 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

 

That's wild. How old are you?

I’m 70. It was West Texas.  Different world 60 years ago.

[0xdeadbeef 1652]

All you tractor driving kids probably had those uppity green tractors. My dad didn't go for that. I learned to plow the orchard (at 11 yo) on a glorious white and blue full size Mitsubishi tractor.  (Young me thought of the green things as tanks, where I was a damn Zero!)  

I always wanted split brakes in a car; it just seems so useful. 

[Ten Bears 2483]

It was pretty sweet when we went from a no cab 806 IH tractor to a new 4440 John Deere with air conditioning and an 8 track stereo.