The Old Black truck

One of Pat’s favorite times of year on the farm was combining time, when his dad would harvest the oats off the field with a machine called a combine, which separated the oats from the straw. It was pulled behind dad’s tractor. The straw stalks would come out the back of the combine, leaving a golden trail in the field for the baler to come along and eat up and make bales out of it. And the oats would be spit through a chute into a metal box on the machine until it was full. Then it was time for dad to pull the combine alongside………The Old Black Truck, which he had parked in the field, waiting to be loaded with oats.

It was nothing fancy, as it’s name said, it was an old black farm truck. Dad had gotten it from Pat’s Great-Uncle Jack when he had retired from farming and it had served Dad well since that time. He only used it a couple of times a year, at combining time and then again at silo-filling time. Pat really liked this truck a lot because there were so many neat things about it.

There were three cool ways for Dad to start this truck. He could turn a key just like in a regular car of today, but this is not what started the truck. Once the key was on Dad still had to step on a button on the floor and THAT is what started it. He had to have a battery in the truck to start it this way.

The second way to start it was for Dad to park it on the haybarn hill. Then, when he wanted to start it, he would once again turn on the key. Then he would push in the clutch with one foot, set his other foot on the brake, and put the truck into gear. Then he would take his foot off the brake and the truck would start to roll down the hill. When it got rolling fast enough, he would let his foot slip off the clutch pedal, letting it snap back quickly and BOOM-the truck would start!!! Dad called this way of starting it “Popping the clutch”

The third and neatest way for Dad to start the truck was for him to flip the seat in the truck forward and pull out a big metal crank from behind it. Again, he would turn on the key. Then, making sure the truck was out of gear and the parking brake set, he would take the crank around to the front and put the crank into a hole in the grille, just above the bumper. After making sure it was in as far as it could go, he would give the crank a spin of a quarter-turn. It might take a couple of tries this way, but sooner or later, the truck’s engine would finally start. Pat liked this way of watching Dad start the truck the best, but Dad told him that it was very dangerous and that a person could break an arm with the crank if they weren’t careful, or else it could spit out from the truck and badly hurt anyone who was standing in front of it. This is why he stood off to the side while turning the crank.

That said, whatever way Dad would start the truck, Pat was always excited when the truck’s motor would roar to life. Actually, “roar” is not the right word to describe it. It was more like a chugging sound-“Leh, leh, leh, leh, leh”. Since the truck was old, it would shake a bit from the vibrations of the running motor, and the exhaust would spout blue smoke. This was because the motor burned a little oil when it ran. But it was still a good old truck in spite of that.

So after a few minutes of “warming up” the motor, Dad would push the clutch in with his foot and move the shifter into first or “low” gear. Then he would slowly let up on the clutch and push on the gas pedal with his other foot. “Leh, leh, leh, leh” the motor would chug as the truck slowly started to move. First gear was also called “Granny Gear”, because the truck would move very slowly in this gear, almost at a crawl.

Very soon it was time to shift up to second. Down would go Dad’s foot on the clutch pedal again as he moved the shifter into second, once again releasing the clutch while pushing the gas with the other foot. “Leh, leh, leh, leh” went the motor. Soon it was time to shift to third……for going out into the field, third gear was normally as high as Dad went, if he was going out onto the road with the truck, he would use fourth or “high” gear. “Leh, leh, leh, leh” the motor would chug as they picked up speed.

And out to the field they went. That's when the REAL fun started, because this truck had one more interesting feature-it had a dumper on the back which would lift up to dump out the load it was carrying, whether it be oats, silage........or kids. Yes kids. That was the big thrill of riding in this truck with Dad, because one of the things that Pat looked forward to every year was climbing onto the back of the truck with his brothers and sisters and riding all the way out into the field.

When Dad was where he wanted to go with the truck, he would tell the kids to all hang on to the front rack of the dumper bed. When everyone was ready, he would pull a lever inside the truck cab. This would start a small pulley that was connected to the truck's motor by a shaft turning underneath the truck. This pulley ran a pump which would push hydraulic fluid into a big piston underneath the dumper bed. As the fluid was forced into the piston......it would raise, pushing the dumper bed up. Up, up-higher, the bed would raise. Up, up, up, higher, higher-the piston would extend out into two sections, like a telescope. Up, up-Pat and his brothers and sisters would squeal and scream with delight as they were lifted higher into the air, holding onto the front rack. Up, up, up, until finally the piston had extended itself out as far as it could go and the dumper bed was all the way up........

Then it was time to let go of the front rack, turn around and sit...........and then slide, slide down the metal bed all the way down to the soft, stubbly ground of the field, where all the kids would land feet-first and roll, with the fresh scent of straw in their noses. It was ten times funner than any regular slide, and it was the highlight of the year. Pat just loved that old black truck