Writing about shoveling yesterday brought to mind another shovel story connected to my Dad. One of the anomalies in Dad's life was the difference between his relationship to cars and tractors. His first car was a 1914 Overland. It must have been one of the first cars in Sinai Township. Roads were mostly dirt tracks and few of them were even graded. Tires were so unreliable that drivers often had to stop and patch them. Dad never wanted to be late, a trait I inherited, and his reason for leaving early always was "We might have a flat tire." This was said even after tires became very reliable. How many automobiles were present in Brookings County in 1915? Hang in there and the shovel will come in a bit.
So, if Dad bought his first car in 1914, would you suppose he purchased a tractor early? Nope, he didn't buy a tractor until 1941. By that time he was on his third car and year from his fourth. His second car was a 1919 Buick Roadster, the third a 1928 Model A Ford, which they drove to Washington, D.C., and South Carolina on their honeymoon, and in 1942 he bought a 1942 Chevrolet Fleetline. Why wait so long to buy a tractor after buying a car. Part of it might have been that he was the family horse expert.
Now, let's shovel. The 1941 tractor was not equipped with hydraulics and consequently wasn't much use in snow removal. The next tractor didn't arrive until 1948, and even though it had hydraulics it didn't have loader useful for moving snow. So, there we were moving snow by shoveling. The shovels were steel, so long lived, but heavy. Often the shovel weighed more than the snow. This was long before plastic shovels. But, lightweight aluminum shovels were available. When he resisted buying one I gifted him one.😀 No self serving in that gift!
An entire blog could be devoted to the frequency in which a giver is served by the gift given. Someone else can write that.
Takk for alt,
Al
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