OVER MY SHOULDER

Someone commented to me the other day--’you must have gotten a lot of different experiences, as many part time jobs as you have done over the years’. The fact is that I have been very fortunate to have had so many varying experiences over the years.

I recall one summer that Dad and I went to Western Kansas for ‘wheat harvest’---I was going to make some money for school the next fall. Dad had been to ‘wheat harvest’ when he was a young man, and I had heard him talk of it many times, thus was looking forward to the experience. I borrowed $300 from Walter Bayless, the banker at the Farmers State Bank in Blue Mound, to buy a car. After looking around, we decided on an old ‘40 maroon Chevy from a car dealer in Pleasanton, Kansas.
The body looked good, the car ran good, and the tires looked good--good tread and not cracked anywhere (at least they stayed up when I kicked them and besides the salesman told us that they had been recapped).

Dad and I started to Western Kansas in that old Chevy---(my first car of which I was very proud)----I believe that the first tire ‘blew’ somewhere around Augusta, Kansas, it was then that we discovered that the recapped tires had holes that had been ‘booted’, before they were recapped. To make a long story short, we had purchased two new tires by the time that the third tire blew, so we replaced the 3rd and 4th tire at the same time (not waiting for the 4th one to blow) and continued west with a new set of tires---which neither Walter nor I had anticipated. (It is hard to believe, but all four of those tires had been booted and recapped)

We ‘caught up’ with the harvest around Ashland, Kansas----and found work with a local harvester within a few hours after we had arrived.. Dad signed on to run a combine, and I signed on as a truck driver to haul grain to the elevator, or to the bins ---- which ever applied on a given day.

I recall that we slept on ‘fold up camp cots’ (I still have one like them in my attic) that were set up in an old round silo that was not in use---If it rained, we would move to the machine shed. One distinct memory that I have is that each morning that we would wake up, we would have grit or sand in our mouth until we rinsed it out. The employer fed us well, paid us pretty good, and kept us busy---by the time that we had worked all day ---sometimes well into the night, we had no problem in getting to sleep --- even on those cots in the old silo. Nearly all of the roads were sand or dirt, but they dried quite quickly after rains.

I remember those beautiful huge fields of golden ripe wheat waving in the wind, waiting for the combine to come by and harvest the grain. To an old country boy from Eastern Kansas, the fields seemed to go on for ever. It seemed that we saw pheasants every where---with many that had been killed by vehicles along the road. We could hear the rooster pheasants crowing each morning as the sun would come up.

I recall the long lines of trucks waiting to ‘dump’ at the elevator. There was always the constant fear of fire in the wheat field. We were regularly warned about driving through wheat stubble, as straw would gather on the exhaust and sometimes start a fire. We observed several fields where a vehicle, once a combine, and the balance of the uncut wheat were burned because of this oversight.

When we finished the harvest in the Ashland area, the cutter for whom we were working moved to Sharon Springs, Kansas to continue the harvest. We had a few days before the cutting would start in Sharon Springs, and we had been gone from home for several weeks, so late one evening after work, we decided to head back to Blue Mound for a long weekend before we reported to Sharon Springs. I was to drive the first part of the trip, and Dad was to drive the last part.

Shortly after we started at about 10:30 p.m. we stopped for coffee and a sandwich----wanting to stay awake all night, I drank several cups of coffee, and took a couple of the advertised “No Doze” pills. After our sandwich we were on our way----the coffee and No Doze were not very effective, as in less than 30 miles, I fell asleep and drove off in to a wide shallow ditch-----Dad took over and drove the rest of the way and we arrived at Blue Mound about 5:00 a.m.---I had slept all of the way home. (Coffee treats me differently now)

After a 3 or 4 day weekend, we returned to Sharon Springs to the wheat harvest, with the intent to follow the harvest into Nebraska or even into South Dakota. However, about the time that we finished up around Sharon Springs, we hit a spell of rainy weather that kept us out of the field for several days. After a week or so of unsettled weather and travel, we were getting into late summer, so Dad and I decided to head back to Blue Mound and call it ‘A Summer’ and look for a new adventure. In as much as the trip home was mostly in the daylight, I was able to stay awake and assist with the driving home.

As I recall, I made enough to pay for the new tires, my expenses (at least part of them) In respect, I would guess that Dad lost money on the venture---I do not recall, but I would guess that he ‘covered’ much more than his share of expenses ---but we had ‘been to wheat harvest’. I would not take anything for the experience, and that summer of companionship with Dad. Oh yes, I did not get any adjustment on the tires from the car dealer, but I did finally get the Bank note on the car paid. Walter was always willing to work with anyone who was willing to ‘try’, and renewed the note regularly until I got it paid.