TBT... Throwback Thursday!

[Dr Crankenstein]

Nice rig Doc - but how did you load and unload the trailer that's on the truck?

The fifth wheel extension is pinned together and pinned to the truck frame. (yellow parts shown below) Pull 8 pins in proper sequence, it comes off and apart in 5 pieces. Stow the pieces.

Put dolly wheels on the landing gear. A pair of ramps clip to the tip of the beavertail. There's a winch hidden inside the box/sleeper thingie.

Roll on, roll off like Karate Kid.

The cab and chassis formerly served as a Rema Tip Top dealer's highway unit with a big cube body on board. It was in sad, rusty shape but had a recently rebuilt/overhauled drivetrain. It was red and ugly as sin! I replaced both fenders, did the bodywork and paint, revamped the interior and built everything else.

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[BillM]

That's awesome, thanks Doc!

 

[Old Iron]

That's ingenuity at it's finest

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Have I posted these before???


Vancouver BC 1945

The rest of these are hometown pics. (Regina SK)

1930s , near downtown. I think the little feller has a poo in his pants.

1940

1947

1960 - I remember the electric trolley buses running into the late '70s

1961 at the Greyhound station... must be Mother's Day or somethin' [S

1967 - The hotel (under construction) hosted some wild "rock star" quality parties over the years... [ddd

1971 - "A River Runs Through It". I recall three major floods in those days. (The city FINALLY built a proper dike in the early '80s.) Can you ID the car?

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[Burgerman]

Don't recall seeing these photos Doc. Big back window in that flooded car. I'm thinking AMC or Ford product.

 

[DozerII]

Thanks for sharing Doc looks like a Rambler American

 

[bob w]

The Greyhound Bus pic brings back lots of memories. Looks older than 1961 though. My grandmother looked and dressed like the women in the pic. Hats on almost everyone. I spent the summers of my youth (1948 to 1958) on my grandparents turkey farm which was a few miles from a small town. Actually earned a wage when I was seven years old. Trapped pocket gophers for bounty too. Hunting, fishing, trapping, farming...what a good life.

 

[DozerII]

That was a good life to have back then Bob, mine was very similar, but 10 years later. Wouldn't change anything from back then.

 

[kenny c]

Thanks for sharing. All the pics are from before I was born (1964). I love old pictures and history. I was fortunate enough to know and hear stories from my great grandfather. I was !4 when he passed.

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

I think you guys are right... looks like a Rambler.

Bob: The photo was tagged 1961 when I collected it. I really don't have a clue to verify, except for the building in the upper left background. (I'll find out when it was built, just because I'm curious now!)

My grandparents dressed like that until they passed in the '70s. Both sides of my family were small, small town and/or farm raised. I also spent plenty of time on the farms and in the small towns as a kid. Gopher tails were a commodity and we made a few bucks for a few thousand. I've never had good vision (discovered much later), so I wasn't the best shot... my younger brother (Blaine), however, could pick the eye out of a gopher. He was also the luckiest fisherman in seven counties, damn him! Growing older, we trapped and/or shot coyotes, foxes, badgers and skunks... plucked hundreds of chickens, threw bales, shovelled manure, worked the dairy barn, drove everything in sight, blah, blah, blah. It was a good, hard-working life and I'm thankful for the ethics instilled.

kenny c: I'm two years behind you. I was the geek kid who'd sit and sift through family albums while the others were playing with crayons and running with scissors. I'm still intrigued by history and I thank my cousin for recently sending me the video below, which very accurately mirrors my grandfather's second life as a grain agent/elevator man. (I was fortunate to experience the whole routine as a small boy.)

https://www.nfb.ca/film/grain_elevator/

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[MercuryMac]

Thanks Doc., that brought back memories.

 

[kenny c]

I grew up out in the country "for Rhode Island"any way. Farming was no longer profitable. I'm still on land that was my Great Grandfather's When I was real young he still had cows for his use,milk and beef. He also raised chickens,Sold eggs and we ate the chickens that stopped laying and he sold those too. When I got a little older my grand father had cows and so did the neighbor. We had pigs. I shoveled more manure than I care to recall. When I was too small to swing hay bales I got to drive the trucks in the hay fields. That's how the kids in my family all learned to drive. Later I handled a lot of hay. A lot of the kids I knew and I as well had dirt bikes and that's how we traveled. The police chief would stop us and find out who our parents were and tell us the "rules" and let us ride the roads to get to the trails. It was a simpler time and I"m glad I got to grow up then. I learned respect for others, the value of hard work and the value of a dollar. Sorry for the long ramble

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Sorry for the long ramble

Let 'er rip, kenny. In my opinion, this is the perfect section for tales of yesteryear.

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[Dr Crankenstein]

Thanks Doc., that brought back memories.

If you're talking about the video, Mac... I get a little choked up every time I watch it... then, I often pick up the phone and talk to one of my cousins, whether they want to hear from me or not. (Seriously, it's the ties that bind.)

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[MercuryMac]

Yes Doc, the video of the elevator and agent triggered a lot of memories. From the mid fifties to '70, riding with Dad, and then the next forty years hauling my own grain, clover and grass seed into old elevators forged those memories. So thank you.

 

[smallfoot]

Neat vid Doc! I wish I had a film of some of the farm stuff I got to experience as a kid. I was born in the city but country at heart although it took me coming of age and out on my own to get to the country where I've been ever since.
When I was about 14 I got the opportunity to spend the summer on a tobacco farm that was owned by relatives. I did it for a couple of years but the first was one I remember the most. When I got there the first time, harvesting was done by hand and animal. Pickers walked the rows cutting the tobacco. Mules drew the wooden boxes on runners where the tobacco was stacked and when the box was full it returned to the tobacco barn where there was platform that looked like a table with a fence in front. The people that put the tobacco on sticks were called "stringers". The fence part was set up where the sticks were placed in holes in the rail and had a ball of twine on pins next to that station. The rail had several stations for the stringers to work. When the wagon was unloaded the tobacco went on the table where the stringers would grab handfuls of tobacco and wrap the handfuls into 'bundles and strung them on the sticks. Sticks were a little over 4' long. When the sticks were strung full they were passed to the "hangers" (those that hung the sticks up in the barn). To do that part was like a chain of people passing the sticks until they got into the barn and handed up to the very top of the barn, sometimes 50-60 feet in the air. The barn was set up with poles going from one end to the other set 4' feet apart in sets of 2 to hang the sticks. We climbed those poles like monkeys and we had one person on each flight of poles until we got up to where the last sticks were placed and continued hanging sticks until we filled all the levels with sticks. The barns had a heater in the bottom. Some early barns were fired with wood, some had gas heaters. Let me tell you. When the first tobacco was hung it wasn't too bad. The barns were naturally hot being summertime in georgia but the hot times were the second hanging. What was harvested in a days time was hung and the heaters were run all night long for the drying process. The next day, when we reached where the previous days harvest was, it was real hot as you can imagine. Talk about sweating blood, it happened. That really an experience for me. The mule drawn sleds and all hand work was replaced the following year I got up there to work with tractors and harvesters. The harvesters had places for everybody involved in the picking process. Outriggers with low seats for 2 pickers, one on each side of the harvester. They could access two rows to pick from as the tractor moved the harvester down the rows. There were two seats mounted a little higher and inside of the pickers seats for the stringers to sit. They had a place for the sticks and string and laced the handfuls of tobacco onto the sticks. When the sticks were full and tied off the stringers would hand the sticks back over their heads to the "stacker"(those of us who rode the wagon behind the harvester) where we would stack the sticks on the wagon. All but the hanging part in the barn was done on the harvester. When the wagon was full it was back to the barn to hang it. Still done by hand up on the poles in the barn. I only did that a couple of years for by the time I was 16 I had a regular job. We were paid 5 dollars a day from 5 am to 5 pm and were offered an extra dollar for working till 6 pm where most of us youngins took that offer for the "extra" cash. On weekends, we got more money for picking watermelons. 20 bucks a day was like gold to us. I remember making it back home the first summer with 65 whole dollars thinking I was rich...
Sorry for the long post. A vid would have been quicker, just like those harvesters...

 

[bob w]

smallfoot, your tobacco post is gold.

Likewise for Kenny C's story.

 

[ANNAMEL]

Thanks for sharing the country and farm stories from yesterday. Fortunately i am still living that life with 50 goats 50 sheep 75 cows 40 chickens i fat lazy pg 20 cats and 4 big mean dogs. Ready your stories took me some years back myself. Thank again

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

I also enjoyed your story, smallfoot. [cl


Bob, I said curiosity would force me to find out, and I did... the building in the upper left corner was built in 1954, so the photo could be that much earlier than 1961.

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[28sawrig]

Grader

The pic with the grader reminds me of my childhood, as a kid they plowed the roads around here with a grader, had a V blade about 8 feet high on the front for the big ones and a bottom blade and about 10’ wing on the side. 6 wheel drive and all 6 wheels steered, would go through anything. Thanks for the memories Doc.