East view at dawn
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Here is another shot of the little tractor. There are actually several stories about this picture.
Montana—certainly our part of it, is a lot further north than Chicago and in fact most of the lower 48. As a result, the summer days are rather long. So if you are seeing a picture of sunrise in the middle of the summer, you know it is pretty early. This is nearing the end of the night shift. Notice the little rain guard at the top of the exhaust stack. It is up, pushed up by the exhaust as the tractor is running. Dad likes to point this out whenever he shows this picture.
The other interesting thing is the implement that the tractor is pulling. I don't recall the name of it, but the part towards the back flips down to smooth out the furrows. Once, as this was being lowered, it hit Dad on the head, knocking him out temporarily. It wasn't too bad, apparently, as the first thing that he looked for was his pipe, which he had been smoking.
The knot on his head was severe enough that they thought the doctor should take a look at it and probably sew it up. Of course, the doctor would come by the house in those days.
I was pretty young, and to this day remember the confusion that I felt when they told of the doctor sewing up Dad's head. I could not quite imagine how he was going to get his head under there and in between those thin plates to get stitched.