The Driving Lesson

      My sister, Kathy, and I had the advantage of living in the country for a few years and this gave us the opportunity to learn how to operate farm equipment and gain practical experience we could use later when we learned to drive a car. Dad had a couple of tractors and one of them he used to teach us to drive.

      The skills used to drive a tractor are very similar to those require to drive a car. Each possesses the same basic components. Learning to drive a tractor isn't all that difficult. It's actually easier to learn than a car since a tractor normally uses a large open area and a car is driven on a narrow roadway with other cars. Additionally, the speed of a tractor is a lot less than a car. Fortunately tractors are much more durable than cars and able to withstand harsher treatment which would leave a car in rubble.

      Kathy was older and started her learning experience before I did. I was able to learn much by watching her. The fundamentals came easy to both of us and Dad allowed Kathy to drive the tractor more often as her skill increased. Eventually he allowed her to drive the tractor all by herself while he and I watched from a distance. Kathy was thrilled with this newfound freedom and soon she was driving all over the farm.

      One day, Kathy was driving down a road that connects one side of the property to another. Off to the side perhaps fifteen feet from the road was were some muscadine grew. Muscadine is a viney plant that produces a berry much like a grape and makes excellent jelly. Anyway, Kathy's driving along when suddenly the tractor swerves off the road heading straight for the clump of muscadine's. Dad and I thought she was just having fun but she continued right for them. One would think that she would try to stop the tractor but she didn't. The tractor ran right up into the clump of vines and climbed up them eventually stopping in the trees.

     Now, to see a tractor up in the trees was rather odd. Dad was stumped as to how he could get it down so he called a neighbor for help. After arriving, the neighbor looked the situation over and he and Dad decided that they needed even more help. They called a couple of other neighbors to come over and apparently they must have called others and told them because within a short time almost all of the men in the area along with there wives and children arrived. Soon the mood turned festive as the men went about removing the tractor from the treetops.

     I don't suppose I'll ever forget that day when the entire community turned out to see the tractor in the trees. I was amazed at how a simple driving lesson could turn into such an event. Why there were as many people come to watch this as any church social I'd ever been to. I do however think that my sister would have prefer everyone did.

Randall Beers

© April 11th 2000

Note: I did exaggerate some during the writing of this store but not much. Randy