The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: CG6468 on May 13, 2011, 03:42:20 PM
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FENDER SKIRTS
I know some of you will not understand this message, but I bet you know someone who might.
I came across this phrase yesterday. 'FENDER SKIRTS.'
A term I haven't heard in a long time, and thinking about 'fender skirts' started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice like 'curb feelers.'
And 'steering knobs.' (AKA) 'suicide knob,' 'neckers knobs.'
Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first.
Any kids will probably have to find some older person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you.
Remember 'Continental kits?' They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.
When did we quit calling them 'emergency brakes?' At some point 'parking brake' became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with 'emergency brake.'
I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the 'foot feed.' Many today do not even know what a clutch is or that the dimmer switch used to be on the floor.
Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the 'running board' up to the house?
Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore - 'store-bought.' Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy.
'Coast to coast' is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term 'world wide' for granted. This floors me.
On a smaller scale, 'wall-to-wall' was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.
When was the last time you heard the quaint phrase 'in a family way ?' It's hard to imagine that the word 'pregnant' was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company, so we had all that talk about stork visits and 'being in a family way' or simply 'expecting.'
Apparently 'brassiere' is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's just 'bra' now. 'Unmentionables' probably wouldn't be understood at all.
I always loved going to the 'picture show,' but I considered 'movie' an affectation.
Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure '60s word I came across the other day 'rat fink.' Ooh, what a nasty put-down!
Here's a word I miss - 'percolator.' That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with 'Coffee maker.' How dull... Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.
I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like 'DynaFlow' and 'Electrolux.' Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with 'SpectraVision!'
Food for thought. Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what Castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening kids with Castor oil anymore.
Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most is 'supper.' Now everybody says 'dinner.' Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
Someone forwarded this to me. I thought some of us of a 'certain age' would remember most of these.
IF YOU AREN'T OF A CERTAIN AGE, YOU MUST KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS.
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Whatever happened to hubcaps? Back in the 70's Cragar hubs were what kids wanted. These days it's the whole wheels that are marketed.
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Whatever happened to hubcaps? Back in the 70's Cragar hubs were what kids wanted. These days it's the whole wheels that are marketed.
Hubcaps....4 bar flicks or sometimes called Lacers.
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Cigarette lighters that you'd push in for a minute after which it'd pop out with the red end and ash trays in cars are pretty much a thing of the past anymore.
"Points, plugs, and condenser" every 12,000 miles.
Leaded gas, dispensed out of a pump that you had to manually reset. Those kinda pumps had the mechanical dial indicators for number of gallons and total price.
Service stations where the guy would actually come out and pump your gas and clean your windshield, as opposed to self-serve. And keep the dirty windshields because most everybody doesn't bother doing that for themselves.
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Cigarette lighters that you'd push in for a minute after which it'd pop out with the red end and ash trays in cars are pretty much a thing of the past anymore.
"Points, plugs, and condenser" every 12,000 miles.
Leaded gas, dispensed out of a pump that you had to manually reset. Those kinda pumps had the mechanical dial indicators for number of gallons and total price.
Service stations where the guy would actually come out and pump your gas and clean your windshield, as opposed to self-serve. And keep the dirty windshields because most everybody doesn't bother doing that for themselves.
Daddy ran a store and I pumped the gas and cleaned the windshields....before that there were 3 country stores in a row out in the country where we lived. One was a PURE station and still had the old glass top pumps. The kind of pumps with a long handle that you moved back and forth to pump the gas up into the glass bowl. The gas was measured in gallons. 10 gallons was the max the bowl would hold and then you let it gravity feed into the car gas tank. I loved pumping the handle even though I was barely big enough to work it.
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Whatever happened to hubcaps? Back in the 70's Cragar hubs were what kids wanted. These days it's the whole wheels that are marketed.
Hubcaps have been replaced by "wheel covers"... shitty, faux-crome plastic pieces of trash that look like they came from the lowest bidder and probably contain hazardous materials.
Oh yeah... rimz, dawg. Rimz.
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Baby moons.
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Cigarette lighters that you'd push in for a minute after which it'd pop out with the red end and ash trays in cars are pretty much a thing of the past anymore.
My truck has one, as did my new truck.
Service stations where the guy would actually come out and pump your gas and clean your windshield, as opposed to self-serve. And keep the dirty windshields because most everybody doesn't bother doing that for themselves.
There might be still a few around. There's one in Hastings MN, Erickson's Freedom Valu Center. Self serve prices w/ full service. At least they used to do that through 1998. I moved in Jan 99. It sure was nice in the winter!!
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My truck has one, as did my new truck.
What year is your "new" truck?
There might be still a few around. There's one in Hastings MN, Erickson's Freedom Valu Center. Self serve prices w/ full service. At least they used to do that through 1998. I moved in Jan 99. It sure was nice in the winter!!
Actually, now that I think about it, in Oregon it's state law that gas be dispensed by a station employee. They won't LET you pump your own. At least that's the way it was in 2004.
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Daddy ran a store and I pumped the gas and cleaned the windshields....before that there were 3 country stores in a row out in the country where we lived. One was a PURE station and still had the old glass top pumps. The kind of pumps with a long handle that you moved back and forth to pump the gas up into the glass bowl. The gas was measured in gallons. 10 gallons was the max the bowl would hold and then you let it gravity feed into the car gas tank. I loved pumping the handle even though I was barely big enough to work it.
Gotta say I've never seen one of those gas pumps. This makes you look really, really old, JR. :-)
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What year is your "new" truck?
I hear it has stone wheels. :-)
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Gotta say I've never seen one of those gas pumps. This makes you look really, really old, JR. :-)
I saw them on that antique 'picker' show that runs on the History channel. It's a gravity pump with a glass chamber at the top.
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I saw them on that antique 'picker' show that runs on the History channel. It's a gravity pump with a glass chamber at the top.
I mean in "real life", chris! :lmao:
When we're talkin' history with JR, we're really talkin' HISTORY! :rotf:
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What year is your "new" truck?
It WAS a 2005 King Ranch Super Crew. Now I drive old reliable which has been through as much hell as I have, a 97 F150 extended cab.
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It WAS a 2005 King Ranch Super Crew. Now I drive old reliable which has been through as much hell as I have, a 97 F150 extended cab.
I remember BEG saying her husband bought a new truck last year. Kinda wondering if they still put in ashtrays and cigarette lighters in the REALLY new trucks.
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I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like 'DynaFlow' and 'Electrolux.'
The Dynaflow was Buick's 2-speed automatic. I guess Chevy's Hydramatic (later Turbohydramatic) was cheaper to make, or they just made more of them. The TH400 (the 4L60E) is still being used today. But you already knew that.
Hydra-Matic: The history of the first automatic transmissions (http://ateupwithmotor.com/technology/246-hydramatic-history-part-1.html)
Also, the Percolator made lousy coffee. I learned this from the Food Channel. Viva la Television!
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The Dynaflow was Buick's 2-speed automatic. I guess Chevy's Hydramatic (later Turbohydramatic) was cheaper to make, or they just made more of them. The TH400 is still being used today. But you already knew that.
Hydra-Matic: The history of the first automatic transmissions (http://ateupwithmotor.com/technology/246-hydramatic-history-part-1.html)
I remember my mother's pink 1963 Buick Special ragtop, and its 2-speed automatic. Did it have the Dynaflow? If so, it was a piece of shit. Frickin' thing melted down a couple of times before some idiot bought it. It had no reverse gear when he bought it and didn't bother to bitch about it when he found out. :loser:
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It may have been. I've heard the 2-speed auto (ugh) was rock-solid compared to some of the manuals of the time.
There are ways around not having a reverse gear. I'm a firm believer in the pull-through method of parking. Anything else is a waste. Let the unlucky bastard that came in behind you back out of his spot. I'm taking the one in the front.
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It may have been. I've heard the 2-speed auto (ugh) was rock-solid compared to some of the manuals of the time.
There are ways around not having a reverse gear. I'm a firm believer in the pull-through method of parking. Anything else is a waste. Let the unlucky bastard that came in behind you back out of his spot. I'm taking the one in the front.
I'm answering my own question about the tranny in the 1963 Buick Special. From Wiki:
two-speed Turbine Drive[4] automatic. The two speed "Dual Path Turbine Drive" automatic was a Buick design and shared no common parts with the better known Chevrolet Power-Glide transmission.
The "Turbine Drive" in the article links to another article on the Dynaflow.
Interesting point:
Acceleration through a Dynaflow was one smooth (if inefficient) experience. It was because of this slow shifting that the Dynaflow transmission was nicknamed "Dynaslush."
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The PG may be a different unit from the HM. I don't know enough about it to pick nits. At the time, GM divisions had the resources to develop their own equipment. That's what happens when you annihilate the competition during a world war. All I know is they're a pain in the ass to replace (I helped a friend replace the torque converter on his '72 El Camino).
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Also, the Percolator made lousy coffee. I learned this from the Food Channel. Viva la Television!
:bird: It makes better coffee than today's damned drip coffeemakers. I use a percolator every day. It suits me just fine. The Food Network & Alton Brown aren't ALWAYS right. AB probably doesn't know how to use a percolator properly, anyways. 12 cups of "mud", made to suit this Sailor..... :-)
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Sailor stew.
Coffee gives me the runs. I don't drink it. I don't know if it comes from the filthy office coffee-maker or the cheap grounds they use.
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Sailor stew.
Coffee gives me the runs. I don't drink it. I don't know if it comes from the filthy office coffee-maker or the cheap grounds they use.
Well, that kinda coffee -- Thor's kind -- takes some getting used to.
Sorta like heroin. Ya gotta build a tolerance first. :fuelfire: :tongue:
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Sailor stew.
Coffee gives me the runs. I don't drink it. I don't know if it comes from the filthy office coffee-maker or the cheap grounds they use.
Probably both. I took to having my own pot at my desk some years ago.
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Well, that kinda coffee -- Thor's kind -- takes some getting used to.
Sorta like heroin. Ya gotta build a tolerance first. :fuelfire: :tongue:
Like eating undercooked pork or chicken on a regular basis? It'll toughen you up, boy! :lmao:
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After the McDonald's lawsuit, drip coffeemakers have had their temps reduced. The water doesn't get hot enough to make decent coffee. The best I can get out of one is to put my regular amount of grounds and half the amount of water. Then there's the warmer plate. Used to be that if one left a partial pot of coffee on the warmer, it would eventually cook off. They don't do that near as fast nowadays. I can damned near piss as warm as most drip coffeemakers keep the coffee.
BTW, I poured some coffee fresh out of the percolator into a thermal mug w/ a lid and accidentally knocked it over on myself a month or two ago. Yes, I did suffer third degree burns on my leg. It sucked, it hurt, but that's what I get for being careless.
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BTW, Eupher, the ex's 05 Ford 500 didn't have a cigarette lighter.
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After the McDonald's lawsuit, drip coffeemakers have had their temps reduced. The water doesn't get hot enough to make decent coffee. The best I can get out of one is to put my regular amount of grounds and half the amount of water. Then there's the warmer plate. Used to be that if one left a partial pot of coffee on the warmer, it would eventually cook off. They don't do that near as fast nowadays. I can damned near piss as warm as most drip coffeemakers keep the coffee.
BTW, I poured some coffee fresh out of the percolator into a thermal mug w/ a lid and accidentally knocked it over on myself a month or two ago. Yes, I did suffer third degree burns on my leg. It sucked, it hurt, but that's what I get for being careless.
Spot on. There's a REASON that places like Starbucks offer those insulated thingies on their paper cups. That coffee is HOT and it's supposed to be brewed that hot -- I think 200 F, if memory serves.
You cannot buy a non-commercial coffeemaker that isn't dumbed-down thanks to the Mickey D fiasco.
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It WAS a 2005 King Ranch Super Crew. Now I drive old reliable which has been through as much hell as I have, a 97 F150 extended cab.
Yep still driving my '97 f150 extended cab with 361,000 miles on it. I do have a new Jeep thats fun to drive.
:bird: It makes better coffee than today's damned drip coffeemakers. I use a percolator every day. It suits me just fine. The Food Network & Alton Brown aren't ALWAYS right. AB probably doesn't know how to use a percolator properly, anyways. 12 cups of "mud", made to suit this Sailor..... :-)
Percolators suck. My auto drip used to make decent coffee, but it just died. Pulled out my coffee press-- now thats a great cup o joe.
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Yep still driving my '97 f150 extended cab with 361,000 miles on it. I do have a new Jeep thats fun to drive.
Percolators suck. My auto drip used to make decent coffee, but it just died. Pulled out my coffee press-- now thats a great cup o joe.
My 97 F150 was a rebuild from being totalled when I bought it. It had all of 7000 miles on it. Then I got into a wreck because the accelerator stuck at wide open throttle. Didn't do much damage to it. I was rear ended by some hick Minnesota teenager in his GMC truck. It bent the frame and some other damage. that was repaired. After my move back to Texas, my girlfriend wrecked it. I repaired that damage. It needs a paint job, but that's way off in the future.
If coffee presses made more than one cup of coffee at a time, I might be interested. I still like my percolator.
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You had to start with old stuff again didn't ya CG :argh:
How about 'spinners', chopped and channeled, rolled and pleated, louvers, S&H green stamps, Top Value Stamps, Sylvania Halo Light TV, 'council TV's with built in HiFi's, black and white 13 inch TV's with 'snowy pictures, TV antenna's with aluminum foil for better reception, skate keys, hula hops, black jack and cloves gum, the " I want a Clark Bar" giraffe commercial, Dinah Shore throwing a 'kiss' after singing 'see the USA in your Chevrolet', 'Roy Rogers was a 'buckaroo', Hopalong Cassidy, . Aw shit, just dump the dirt on this old fart............... :banghead: :bawl:
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Chevy's auto trans that preceded their Hydramatic was the Powerglide. The Powerglide was a 2-speed automatic, and it was a very strong tranny.
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Chevy's auto trans that preceded their Hydramatic was the Powerglide. The Powerglide was a 2-speed automatic, and it was a very strong tranny.
True, the PowerGlide was a robust transmission (it sucked at keeping an engine anywhere close to the power curve, however).......but you missed one.....
Before the Hydromatic (which was designed by Oldsmobile in 1953), Chevrolet toyed for two years (57 and 58 if I remember correctly) with the "Turboglide".....which was a cheap knockoff of the old Buick DynaFlow (however, built by Allison).....although a three-speed, it had an operating life of about 30k miles before overhaul. It was a commercial disaster.......along with "air suspension" in 1958 (in which air bags were substituted for springs on all four wheels).........fun times in the auto business........
I doubt that anyone here will remember that prior to automatic transmissions, there were several versions of "clutchless" vehicles manufactured with what amounted to an electrically-actuated torque converter in the drive line, eliminating the clutch. By releasing downward pressure on the accelerator, the converter disengaged the transmission, allowing you to shift gears without a clutch.
And yeah.....I remember fender skirts........but they were a bitch when you needed to change a rear tire on a rainy night on a dirt road.......... :-)
doc
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The first two cars I drove had fender skirts, a 65 Cadillac Calais 2 dr & a 70 Olds 98 LS. TVDOC is right. It was a PITA changing tires, rain or not.
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True, the PowerGlide was a robust transmission (it sucked at keeping an engine anywhere close to the power curve, however).......but you missed one.....
Before the Hydromatic (which was designed by Oldsmobile in 1953), Chevrolet toyed for two years (57 and 58 if I remember correctly) with the "Turboglide".....which was a cheap knockoff of the old Buick DynaFlow (however, built by Allison).....although a three-speed, it had an operating life of about 30k miles before overhaul. It was a commercial disaster.......along with "air suspension" in 1958 (in which air bags were substituted for springs on all four wheels).........fun times in the auto business........
I doubt that anyone here will remember that prior to automatic transmissions, there were several versions of "clutchless" vehicles manufactured with what amounted to an electrically-actuated torque converter in the drive line, eliminating the clutch. By releasing downward pressure on the accelerator, the converter disengaged the transmission, allowing you to shift gears without a clutch.
And yeah.....I remember fender skirts........but they were a bitch when you needed to change a rear tire on a rainy night on a dirt road.......... :-)
doc
Turboglide with the "Grade Retard" choice. What a hunk of shit. My dad had one in a 1959 Impala with a 348. It never had any discernible shifting. I knew a guy who had one in a 1959 Impala with a 409, and his was a constant pain in the ass. At least we never had to rebuild my dad's.
My dad traded the '59 Chevy for a 1963 Olds convert with a white leather interior. Before the Chevy he had a '56 Chevy with the "factory power pack" (4-bbl, dual exhaust), and before that he had a 1952 DeSoto. I think the DeSoto had one of those shiftless trannys. Before that he owned a 1949 Dodge.
I had a '58 Impala convertible, but no air suspension, and it had the 283 with a Powerglide.
I can recall the shiftless trannys; actually, VW had one in about 1972.
The fender skirts made it a real pain in the ass to change a tire.
I still use a necker's knob on my John Deere garden tractor.
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If you were really good at "feathering" the accelerator, and interpreting engine RPM by sound and feel, you could go through all three gears in a manual transmission without using the clutch.........used to really impress the girls......
And speaking of "commercial failures", anyone remember that Ford and Edsel made a "Hardtop Convertable" in 57, 58, and 59, with an actual folding steel top that retracted into the trunk? They could never synchronize the motors and servos to get it to work reliably tho......it was fun to watch however....
doc
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I used to shift my Datsun 310 GX without using the clutch. That was fine if in town or slow traffic, but not too slow. It never seemed to impress the women I was with. :clueless:
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I used to shift my Datsun 310 GX without using the clutch. That was fine if in town or slow traffic, but not too slow. It never seemed to impress the women I was with. :clueless:
You had to do it with flair........right arm around the girl, left foot on the dash, and using one hand both steer and shift with the left hand........ :rotf:
doc
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I can drive just about anything by synchronizing the gears and transmissions, using no clutch. It was one of the first things I learned when I began to drive.
I had to use that method on my 1954 Mercury, with 3 on the tree. The clutch linkage would often break right off the firewall. Fun times! :lmao: I also went through 6 transmissions on that Mercury; it was really weak hitting 2nd from 1st. ::)
The clutch cable on my '76 Chevette snapped when I worked in Chicago. I started it in 1st gear (hic-hic-hiccup), and by anticipating the traffic and stop lights, I made it home - 35 miles, including traffic on the Dan Ryan expressway.
I got 153,000 miles out of that piece of shit. Rusty Jones had about 10 years of work in it, replacing and repairing the constantly rusted out cowls. (I probably caused Rusty Jones to go out of business! :rotf: ) The driver's door hinges finally gave up the ghost, and anyone who drove it had to crawl in and out through the open window or use the passenger door. Towards the end, it backfired every time you shifted, and there was no sneaking up on anyone! Our son used it the final time when he took a dog for a run, and the engine just locked up on him. He thought that he was in DEEP shit, but it was ready to fail at any time. I donated it to the local high school for a $1500 tax writeoff!!!!! :rotf:
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I got 153,000 miles out of that piece of shit. Rusty Jones had about 10 years of work in it, replacing and repairing the constantly rusted out cowls. (I probably caused Rusty Jones to go out of business! :rotf: ) The driver's door hinges finally gave up the ghost, and anyone who drove it had to crawl in and out through the open window or use the passenger door. Towards the end, it backfired every time you shifted, and there was no sneaking up on anyone! Our son used it the final time when he took a dog for a run, and the engine just locked up on him. He thought that he was in DEEP shit, but it was ready to fail at any time. I donated it to the local high school for a $1500 tax writeoff!!!!! :rotf:
The rust must be a Chicago thing......I bought our oldest daughter a (new) Sprint/Geo Metro for her graduation from college in 86, shortly after she got a job in Chicago, and drove the car there for about eight years. She donated it to our youngest son when he was a senior in HS, and she got a company car
I then spent every other weekend welding plates in the floorpan, scabs on the cowl and undercarriage and assorted other rust repairs to keep it on the road. It had well over 100k on it when he went off to school and gave it to his girlfriend's father.......it still got nearly 50 mpg.
doc
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I remember my Dad's '62 Caddy with the fender skirts. Rusted out, with those monster tires, what a PITA. Putting those tires on the car was like threading a 120 lb. needle with your arms extended out all the way. Jeezus....
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The rust must be a Chicago thing......I bought our oldest daughter a (new) Sprint/Geo Metro for her graduation from college in 86, shortly after she got a job in Chicago, and drove the car there for about eight years. She donated it to our youngest son when he was a senior in HS, and she got a company car
I then spent every other weekend welding plates in the floorpan, scabs on the cowl and undercarriage and assorted other rust repairs to keep it on the road. It had well over 100k on it when he went off to school and gave it to his girlfriend's father.......it still got nearly 50 mpg.
doc
We had an '87 Camry that got 48 MPG on the road. The floorboard rusted out so badly on the passenger side that you could see the road under the car.
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I remember my Dad's '62 Caddy with the fender skirts. Rusted out, with those monster tires, what a PITA. Putting those tires on the car was like threading a 120 lb. needle with your arms extended out all the way. Jeezus....
Wimp........ :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
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Wimp........ :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:
For a 12-year-old kid, yeah. I was a wimp. :-)
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For a 12-year-old kid, yeah. I was a wimp. :-)
BS'ed for making excuses. When I was 12, I was throwing 40 lb bales of hay 8-10 ft in the air to get it stacked in the barn. A tire?? That was nothing. I guess that's why I'm "Thor" and you're not!! :tongue:
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So funny you guys, Anyone old enough to remember waking up as a kid the the first thing you heard was a loud---Chunka a chunka as someone was shaking down the still hot coals in the coal furnice.
The up stairs of a house had large grates in the floor to open to allow heat to go into the upstairs bedrooms, summers it was fun to drop marbles down on the heads of those on the first floor.
Anyone have relatives that had those huge cast iron stoves that burned wood or coal.??? The hooks to remove the round plates to place more fuel inside.??
The flat irons that were heated on the stoves to iron clothing.
One grandparent had a modern home of its time. Early AM the oil furnace came on and the pings and bloops from air in the pipes going to radiators, the smell of perked coffee percolator in the air smelled delicious.
I do remember one grandparent had a Ice box at their summer camp and watched as the Ice man brought in a big block of ice with Hugh tongs.
I just barely have memory of staying with my great grand mother for a week or so and some old man came walking up the road going from camp to camp with a big cooler on wheelers that he pulled full of ice and fresh fish, clams etc. Much haggling went on between the seller and the buyer, I would hide when I heard his call in the yard of ----Fresh fish.
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BS'ed for making excuses. When I was 12, I was throwing 40 lb bales of hay 8-10 ft in the air to get it stacked in the barn. A tire?? That was nothing. I guess that's why I'm "Thor" and you're not!! :tongue:
I used to admire 40-lb. bales of hay from the inside of my air-conditioned car when I and my entourage would tour farms to see how the poor people lived. When I saw them hit the ground and make those little puffs of smoke, I would think, "OMG! Somebody's actually BREATHING that dust!"
:-)
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40 pound bales of hay !!!!!! Tighten up on the baler, that's a waste of string(wire).
My daddy thought if they didn't weigh at least 75 pounds, they weren't worth handling.
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yeah I remember all this stuff. and the terminology used back then.
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I used to admire 40-lb. bales of hay from the inside of my air-conditioned car when I and my entourage would tour farms to see how the poor people lived. When I saw them hit the ground and make those little puffs of smoke, I would think, "OMG! Somebody's actually BREATHING that dust!"
:-)
Yeah, I bet!! BTW, we weren't exactly poor at that point. We were until I was nine. Dirt poor.
40 pound bales of hay !!!!!! Tighten up on the baler, that's a waste of string(wire).
My daddy thought if they didn't weigh at least 75 pounds, they weren't worth handling.
I dunno, that's how they baled them for horses back when I had horses. (From the time I was 12 until I was 17½) Anyways, I didn't bale it, I just went out in the field and loaded it on the trailer and from there, into the barn. Now, hay for cattle can get all moldy and icky, the cattle don't mind. Moldy hay will make a horse pretty sick, if not kill them.
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I dunno, that's how they baled them for horses back when I had horses. (From the time I was 12 until I was 17½) Anyways, I didn't bale it, I just went out in the field and loaded it on the trailer and from there, into the barn. Now, hay for cattle can get all moldy and icky, the cattle don't mind. Moldy hay will make a horse pretty sick, if not kill them.
This was fescue hay and it was dry. If it was wet enough to mold it would go thru a heat and possibly catch fire. Farmer lost a corner of a barn here a couple years ago to that. He said he kept smelling smoke all day and just couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Just before leaving the area for home he saw flames and called the fire department.
If we ever put up any that daddy thought might have to much moisture, I had to test it. Everyday for a couple of weeks I would go out to the barn and dig down in a stack. I'd take out a bale and cut it open and feel it to see if it was hot. Found a few that got pretty warm but never any close to catching fire.
Now they cut hay with a mower that will windrow it and the baler comes right behind the mower and bales it. Then they pick it up on a machine and wrap it air tight in plastic. It goes thru a heat and pickling process like sillage. Stinks to high heaven but the cows love it.
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I didn't bale. i was only 11 or 12. just to small. but I wanted to do something and they knew it. so my step dad's brother taught me how to drive the tractor. we went down those 1 or 2 lane dirt roads. he was sitting and i was standing in front of him operating the wheel and the throttle. what a blast !!! and i was heavy on the throttle. in time i learned to go the right speed. it was diff when the trailer was hooked up. another learning curve. but i got my chance. I was supervised of course. I had problems slowing down and turning at the end of the field.
but i got paid just like the rest. my first paying job.