Summer of 65'

...Dad and Mom continued to go to school during the summer, usually in Provo but at times in Salt Lake City or even Denver. But, the summer of 1965 was spent at Grandpa and Grandma Dalton’s house (I don’t think mom was there). Dad and we boys helped Grandpa “haul hay” in Springville, Mapleton and Sanpete County. Grandpa wore Levi 501s and denim shirts with pearl snaps, pull on work boots and a cowboy hat. He was a man of the cattle trade. I was pretty small so would be relegated to driving the tractor or truck while my older brothers and uncles would buck bales. I recall how difficult it was to drive that truck! The International Harvester had a throttle that was set at high idle. I was instructed to sit on the edge of the seat and slowly let the clutch out when Uncle Jan yelled, “GO.” The truck would start forward and I was to drive slowly across the field while the uncles and brothers threw bails of hay onto the back of the truck and stacked them on the flat bed. When someone yelled, “WO” I was to push the clutch in and the truck would slow or stop. The clutch seemed to get stiffer and stiffer as the day wore on. Pretty soon my leg was shaking and my foot was fast asleep. Suddenly, my foot slipped off the clutch and the truck lurched forward sending a couple of bodies and bails off the flat bed to the ground. I pushed the clutch back in, but not before I was cursed severely! On another occasion I was instructed to take a tractor to another field to pick up a trailer. While the clutch on the trailer was easier to use, the throttle had been set much higher so I found myself driving at a pretty fast clip across the furrows of the field. Soon I was bounced completely off the tractor. Uncle Jan recounts that all that was hurt was my pride because I promptly took the hat off my head and threw it to the ground! Everyone else got a pretty big laugh out of this...