On my grandparent’s farm, they always had a “farm truck”. Through the years we all grew up driving the old farm truck around doing farm chores. And over time the old truck took a few hits and dings. But one particular night stands ou
One summer evening, a mule came up to the back of the roping pen on my grandparent’s place. Not knowing whose it was, how or where it came from, my nanny was afraid that it had got mixed up with the cows. This was a bad time because it was calving season and if a mule feels threatened it can hurt or kill a newborn calf.
My grandmother and I were the only two on the place… so we took off to get the mule in the pen which to our surprise was easy. With that done, we set off in the old farm truck to check the cows and calves. It was a large area, about 800 acres so after a few miles of Nanny driving the old truck across the creeks and over the hills, we finally found the herd. There they were, all the cows with all the new babies, safe and sound. Oh! Was it a great sight! Nanny was happy to see that all was fine.
There was only one more job on the list: check the fence to see where the mule had gotten in. Only a few places in the pasture area are easily accessed by truck, we checked those places on our way back to the house to get the four-wheeler. I would use it to try to cover more ground because we were losing daylight very quickly. We had to work fast.
Leaving my grandmother behind to finish feeding the other animals, I set out to check the fence as quickly as possible. Three miles, 650 limbs in the face, and a creek or two later, I found a tree on the fence. Let me just say by this time it is about 8:30, and after looking the situation over, I knew there was no way that I could get the tree off the fence without help. So, I jumped on the ATV and headed back to the house for tools, my grandmother, and of course the old farm truck.
With the truck loaded down, Nanny and the farm dog (Cowgirl) in the truck following me, we headed out to the back pasture. At the top of the hill on the main road, I stopped and told Nanny that the truck would not make it down to the line because the trail was not wide enough. We would have to put all the tools on the ATV and haul them down to the fence line. But nope, she had other ideas. “I can make it in the old truck. It has not let me down yet,” she said. I knew better than to argue about it, her mind was set.
Off down the trail, I headed with her in tow. I had gone a little way and looked behind me to see how she was doing. Well, let me just say, the old truck was too wide to make it down the narrow trail, or for most people it would have been. Nanny steered that old truck right, then left, hit the gas, dodged a tree here, and a stump there, then hit the brakes, turned sharply to the left and she just kept coming. The old truck went this way, and then that way, lurching forward down the narrow cow trail, forcing itself through the brush, and with one final jump, she finally made it to the fence line.
It was late by this point. No daylight left, so we are working by headlights from the old farm truck and ATV. We finally got the chainsaw running, and with Nanny holding the flashlight, I got the tree cut off the fence. With a little work in another 15 minutes, we got the fence back up and all the tools loaded and ready to head home.
Nanny said that she was NOT gonna try going back up the trail the way she came down but was headed across the creek to the other trail and up the hill. I said, “ok, but I had to put the ATV in four-wheel drive to cross the creek and get up the hill earlier. It’s a mess.” Even though the old farm truck was not a four-wheel drive there was no need to argue with her. Her mind was made up. We headed for home up the creek trail.
I made it across the creek, up the trail to the top of the hill, and around the curve. I pulled to the side and waited… I could hear the old truck in the distance, but it didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Minutes passed… no old truck, no grandmother. I waited…a few more minutes passed…still no truck, no grandmother. As I listened, I finally heard the old truck die. “Oh, crap… Nanny?”, I said out loud.
I jumped off the ATV and raced back down the hill on foot not knowing if I could make it back down on the ATV. I went headlong down the dark path…no lights…nothing, looking for my Nanny!!!! I stumbled down the washed-out cow trail, pushing aside limbs, slipping and stumbling, and looking for my grandmother and Cowgirl. I made it down about halfway and stared into the darkness. I should have been able to see lights or have met up with Nanny but there was nothing.
I turned and scrambled back up the hill. I needed lights. By the time I reached the ATV, I had decided I wasn’t attempting to go back down that trail tonight, so I jumped on and I drove as fast as I could out to the main road, back to the original trail, and started down. I finally spotted Nanny. She was walking up it in the dark with the dog. I stopped and asked, “Where is the old farm truck?” “Well,” she looked at me and said, “it’s in the creek!!!” “What! Come again?” I asked, with a big grin, thankful she couldn’t see my face in the dark. “I didn’t make it!” she said with a smile. “Well, I see that because you are walking,” I said laughing.
So here we go back down the trail again to see how bad the old farm truck was stuck. It didn’t look too bad. She had barely managed to get the old farm truck in the creek, but it must have jerked to the left as she went in and now set with the back against a tree and the driver’s door firmly wedged against something in the water. She said she couldn’t get the door open, so she had crawled out the window into the bed of the truck and onto the embankment. Then decided she couldn’t cross the creek because she don’t do water and headed back up the way she had come hoping I’d figure it out and meet her at the top of the hill.
Now we had to figure out how to get the truck out. I climbed into the driver’s seat and tried going backward, forward, wedging stuff under the tires and it didn’t budge, I knew we had a big problem. What were we going to do? We needed help. There was one good thing, we didn’t have to walk back home to get help at ten o’clock at night which is what usually happened. This time we at least had the ATV. We talked about it and she said, “go to the house and get the tractor and come pull it out.” “Ok”, I said and left her and Cowgirl in the truck, and off to house, I headed again.
Back at the house, I got the tractor running but wait…. the tractor didn’t have headlights…yep! no headlights. Ok so no big deal, right. Wrong…I am not the tallest gal, the tractor seat was broken, I couldn’t reach the clutch without standing, and now I couldn’t see! It was a very big deal. Yep! It had been a LONG night already, but I had to make it work. I had to rescue Nanny and the old farm truck.
I drove the old tractor about half a mile or so, steering with one hand and shining a flashlight with the other. It wasn’t easy but I was making it work. And then finally some ‘back up’ showed up. I ask them to help and we headed for the woods, one driving the tractor and the other shining the light. We made it back over to the trail and down to the creek where the old farm truck, Nanny, and Cowgirl were waiting.
With a couple of different pulls, back and forth, the old farm truck came unstuck. With no other way out but the original trail we came down, we headed for home. It was just as crazy going back up as it was going down, but we made it. We drove down the main road on the tractor with the old farm truck shining the way. Back at the house, we called it a night.
The next morning, I went out to see how much damage we had done to the old farm truck. Well just let me say, the old farm truck was caved in on both sides from headlights to taillights. It had suffered a lot of cosmetic damage but still ran good and we used it for many more years. But that’s another story.
As I look back on this old farm truck, I see all the memories that night held and I think about the other stories that old farm truck tells!
