|
Dan, I got the instructions. Many thanks. I didn't shave this morning, either. The '14 looks great. I started driving my father's '38 F-12 when I was about 8 (in 1938!). I couldn't reach the pedals that year, so somebody would climb up on the drawbar to work the clutch. Then I'd pull a wagon through a big field with a hayloader attached, or do something slow like that so somebody could help me stop or start. In a year or so, I could slide down and reach the clutch. By 10 or thereabouts, I was
cultivating and plowing. I still shudder to think that my father didn't put his foot down and say, "Get down, ya little punk!" What would
OHSA say today to a farmer who let a 4'6" 4th grader drive alone in a field? Well, he would have had a fight on his hands, I guess, 'cause I was "bound, bent and billy-be-damned" I was gonna drive. One little story that now makes me cringe is that in the late 40s, I wanted the F-12 to look like your -14 does. I guess it was the influence of the H and M with their rakish steering wheels up high. I didn't ask. I just cut off the steering shaft behind the steering-gear box and took the shaft to a machine shop to get holes bored so I could bolt on a U-joint that happened to fit. Then--this is the real horror--I cut off the steering post and stuck a piece of plumbing pipe over it, then dropped the short part left over at the top down into the pipe! Now I had what looked like an F-14, if you didn't look too close. It really looked pretty ratty. The seat had to be raised a little, so I put a piece of 2 x 4 under it. We used my phony F-14 for several years after that. I'd love to have that old 'gal like it was before I "improved" it.
A cousin with a wicked sense of humor must have
sensed what I was into. As soon as he saw what I had done, he asked me, "Well, did that make it go any faster?" Sheepish grin on my face. Your grandson really is cute. Tell him all
about mags and points and oil pumps and clutches and power lifts and mufflers and carbs and water pumps (or none, in this case) and pulleys and PTOS, and let him drive where it's safe. Not only will he have great memories of Grandpa, but
he may learn to share your joy in machines. I can't tell you how much I learned about machines just by being around them, watching my father tinker them up (he didn't explain anything unless I asked, which I did; I would have soaked up anything he said about a machine if he had volunteered). Grandparents can leave wonderful memories. I still have a warm spot for one of my grandfathers, who invited me and my 2 brothers, in turn, to spend a week on his potato farm. He knew I loved tractors, and he always gave me some "work" to do, like driving his little homemade doodle-bug truck to and from the potato field, and disking up the fields after the taters were dug. Then he'd give me $20 (a fortune in the 40s) for work I would have paid him to let me do. He also took each of us downtown to the pharmacy for some ice cream, and then with great pride, he'd introduce us to the pharmacist. I think kids are avid for the kind of just-come-and-let-me-show-you something kind of attention. If I had young grandchildren, I'd show them how to build a model airplane, how to
make a picture frame, what's under a car hood and how it works, how a clutch and transmission, or maybe even an automatic transmission work, how to make a good exposure with a camera, how to measure the height of a tree without climbing it (trig, I guess), and on and on. Keep up the good work. I can see you're going to have a good time with this young feller.
|
