Will’s First Car–A 1952 Ford Sedan

 My first long road trip was a trip I and a cousin made to San Diego, California in 1952.   I was sixteen coming on seventeen years old, and had just purchased my first car.  The prior year, at age fifteen, Dad had leased me 80 acres of land, my share of which, would be my pay for helping him on the farm.  In return for staking me to seed, fuel, and equipment for planting and harvesting my crop, he took half.

The crop came in good that year, and… Continue reading →

Photo image of calendar courtesy of digitalart from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you ever noticed how some traditions seem to be falling by the wayside?  I was walking the other morning and noticed what appeared to be a full moon still hanging quite high in the western sky.  I was interested to see if in fact it was a full moon or if it still had a way to go.  I reached into my shirt pocket for my pocket calendar to check the date of the full moon, and much to my dismay, there were no moon phases listed… Continue reading →

Photo courtesy of Bill Longshaw/FreeDigitalphotos.net

Some lessons in the life of a kid come with a bit of difficulty.  I remember one of the most difficult lessons, and yet one of the most rewarding for me, occurred when Dad dealt with me for an indiscretion I had committed against a fine old gentleman of our village. The man’s name was Adolph. He was a man of few words—especially around kids. We perceived this as being gruff and unfriendly.   Fact is, he was probably one of the kindest, most gentle of men you would ever meet.

It all started… Continue reading →

Allis Chalmers HD5 Crawler Tractor

International TD9 Crawler

My dad was a drylamd farmer in the highlands of Southeast Idaho(dryland farming depends strictly on the moisture Mother Nature provides—no additional irrigation).  He had two International crawler tractors in his farming operation, a TD 9 and a TD 14.  The TD 9 gets the honor of being the subject of this blog post; that miserable cantankerous, difficult to start, prima donna TD 9.  People familiar with diesel powered tractors in the days prior to 1960 will remember these tractors were not direct start as they are today. … Continue reading →

The Tin Lizzy

As I perused another past issue of Reminisce Magazine, I came across a few stories about the Model T Ford—affectionately referred to in its heyday—as the “Tin Lizzie.” This brought back memories of an afternoon experience of mine with one of those “legendary” autos.

When I was a small boy living in the small village of Grace, Idaho during the 1940s, there was a teen-age boy who had access to a Model T. This car fascinated us younger boys, because even compared to 1940s vintage cars, this T seemed like a relic, and we had been… Continue reading →