Bam! And then you realise how old you are

[wisecobandit]

Now this could turn into an epic post but bear with me as this could become a bit of a "Remember when" thing

 

So there I was driving down a country lane today thinking about time these bloody road hedges got cut and it triggered....

 

Being a farm boy as a young un it brought back memories of cutting hedges with an old finger bar mower on the back of a tractor , then picking up the hedge parings by hand throwing them in a trailer and dumping them in a field to burn them there. Lots of smouldering piles loitered the area with bonfire smoke..

 

Then there there was also the stubble burning, plough around the perimeter of the field several rounds and then chain an old tyre to the back of a tractor and throw diesel or oil on it to drag around the field to get a good field burn.

 

So then I started thinking what the earliest tractors we had on the farm, ford 4000's 5000's and an international 574 and a county for when 4 wheel drive was needed. We also had a tracked field marshall "putt putt" which was old even back then, crank handle start or a pelletless shotgun shell would fire that beast of a single cylinder engine up (hence the putt putt name as they where called) but boy that thing would drop a chisel/mole plough 4 ft deep in the ground and pull it.

Back then farms only really had 1 4wd tractor due to implements being much smaller and John Deeres hardly existed or had a good reputation.

 

As a wee whipper snapper I would watch the old man milk cows by putting a chain around there neck to solid post and fill milk churns up. No bulk tanks and automated systems back then. The first milking parlour when they came out was duly bought and fitted and would milk 6 abreast at once! now its normally a 12/12 herring bone milking 24 at once!

 

The school holidays where mainly spent baling and dreying hay before the the corn started. Again we had the latest technology a new Holland 1540 combine with a 14ft head which was the bees knees after the old allis chalmers that would cut 8ft! 5 tonnes trailers where pretty much the biggest back then...Now 18ft+ can be the norm alongside 8-10 tonne trailers sometimes bigger.

 

The local bobby would pop into the "always unlocked" farmhouse for a cuppa and slice of fruitcake "in lieu" of turning a blind eye of seeing my brother or I driving up the road with trailers of hay/straw and corn from about the age of 10.

 

Small bales where the only way to bale, having to stack them in 6's or 8's to allow the old perry loader on the massey 35 to load them up onto a trailer.

 

Every farmer had a blue danarm chainsaw before stihl really came around.

 

Strimmers?? what where they... Every rotovator you ever saw was a huge orange howard gem. Buy a petrol mower and it was always a mountfield.

 

First computers where the applemac/bbc micro or zx spectrum 48k!

 

What was a mobile phone? Back then it was a whirly gig house phone not push button.

 

3 tv channels and massive excitement when channel 4 came out. Trying to find it on the wooden cased t.v with a windy dial and then realising it only came on after 6PM. Think the only thing they used to put on was "Flash Gordon" and that was in black and white and always fuzzy.

 

I could go on and on but hell im only 43 but how times have changed and you realise how much you've actually seen advance on the technology stake.

 

So what stands out in other peoples memories? Im sure the above may "jog" a few peoples memorys :lol:

Edited September 4, 2014 by wisecobandit

[bobh]

Perry loaders, had forgotten about them, or was it my mind blocking it out.

How about unloading a lorry load of nitram in small bags on your own cos the boss "has to make some phonecalls"

[Mark Bolam]

Pretty much all of the above, and being amazed by some older lads having digital watches with red LED numbers that lit up when you pressed a button.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

[dogman]

3 tv channels ? you were rich then !, though I'm a bit older at 55(born in 58)we only had bbc 1 & itv, I used to go next door to watch the goodies on bbc 2.

 

Rob

[Mick Stockbridge]

Hand me downs off your older brother.

 

Second dip in the tin bath as well.

[scraggs]

I could go on and on but hell im only 43 but how times have changed and you realise how much you've actually seen advance on the technology stake.

 

 

And sadly very little of it for the better imo

It was bliss when we stopped at the phone box twice a day to see who had phoned for the next days orders and wasn't constantly available on the phone and actually managed to get on with the work.

Along with all the advances has come people under more stress.

I remember well when we bought our first tractor mounted turf harvester, which was bliss from the walk behind machines and all the back break it involved, now it's all computer controlled multi head auto stack machines.

[NoRush]

Them were the days. I stacked about 1500 bales one year by hand (small bales). Weeding around fodder beer with a hoe. Conventional ploughing, non of this reversable stuff. Mastering the art of loading bales with a pitchfork. You knew you had done a days work

[5 shires]

Now this could turn into an epic post but bear with me as this could become a bit of a "Remember when" thing

 

So there I was driving down a country lane today thinking about time these bloody road hedges got cut and it triggered....

 

Being a farm boy as a young un it brought back memories of cutting hedges with an old finger bar mower on the back of a tractor , then picking up the hedge parings by hand throwing them in a trailer and dumping them in a field to burn them there. Lots of smouldering piles loitered the area with bonfire smoke..

 

Then there there was also the stubble burning, plough around the perimeter of the field several rounds and then chain an old tyre to the back of a tractor and throw diesel or oil on it to drag around the field to get a good field burn.

 

So then I started thinking what the earliest tractors we had on the farm, ford 4000's 5000's and an international 574 and a county for when 4 wheel drive was needed. We also had a tracked field marshall "putt putt" which was old even back then, crank handle start or a pelletless shotgun shell would fire that beast of a single cylinder engine up (hence the putt putt name as they where called) but boy that thing would drop a chisel/mole plough 4 ft deep in the ground and pull it.

Back then farms only really had 1 4wd tractor due to implements being much smaller and John Deeres hardly existed or had a good reputation.

 

As a wee whipper snapper I would watch the old man milk cows by putting a chain around there neck to solid post and fill milk churns up. No bulk tanks and automated systems back then. The first milking parlour when they came out was duly bought and fitted and would milk 6 abreast at once! now its normally a 12/12 herring bone milking 24 at once!

 

The school holidays where mainly spent baling and dreying hay before the the corn started. Again we had the latest technology a new Holland 1540 combine with a 14ft head which was the bees knees after the old allis chalmers that would cut 8ft! 5 tonnes trailers where pretty much the biggest back then...Now 18ft+ can be the norm alongside 8-10 tonne trailers sometimes bigger.

 

The local bobby would pop into the "always unlocked" farmhouse for a cuppa and slice of fruitcake "in lieu" of turning a blind eye of seeing my brother or I driving up the road with trailers of hay/straw and corn from about the age of 10.

 

Small bales where the only way to bale, having to stack them in 6's or 8's to allow the old perry loader on the massey 35 to load them up onto a trailer.

 

Every farmer had a blue danarm chainsaw before stihl really came around.

 

Strimmers?? what where they... Every rotovator you ever saw was a huge orange howard gem. Buy a petrol mower and it was always a mountfield.

 

First computers where the applemac/bbc micro or zx spectrum 48k!

 

What was a mobile phone? Back then it was a whirly gig house phone not push button.

 

3 tv channels and massive excitement when channel 4 came out. Trying to find it on the wooden cased t.v with a windy dial and then realising it only came on after 6PM. Think the only thing they used to put on was "Flash Gordon" and that was in black and white and always fuzzy.

 

I could go on and on but hell im only 43 but how times have changed and you realise how much you've actually seen advance on the technology stake.

 

So what stands out in other peoples memories? Im sure the above may "jog" a few peoples memorys :lol:

 

 

All of most of what you said, and can't remember it ever raining in the summer hols,or for that matter anytime must have blanked it out. Tele programmes. Love thy neighbour,till death do us part,on the buses.

 

God could anyone of us my age imagine love thy neighbour on the tele now. Not a chance. I'll have half is about what would be allowed.

[Joe Newton]

I never had a tumble dryer or broadband til I was about 20...

 

Character building though.

 

Made me the man I am today.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

I found some old cassette tapes in the loft recently so have been listening to them in the truck cassette player.

 

This song (on one of the tapes) sums up my sorrow:

 

 

Modern times suck