How Cool Am I {Memories}

So I learned to drive a truck in a freak lightning storm.  I’m still not a fan but I’m not as scared as I used to be.  But that night my dad had about 60 acres of hay down on the ground.  Now luckily it was baled up, he just had to get it loaded and in to the barn before it rained.  We actually didn’t even start loading that hay until like 9pm.  It was dark, the only light was from the headlights and the lightning in the sky.  So I was in the truck and my dad was driving it from outside.  The truck is a standard so you could put it in 1st gear and Low 4 wheel drive and it would drive itself down the rows with a little steering directions every now and then.  Well I was screaming every time it would flash lightning so my dad asked if I wanted a job.  I told  him sure.  I wasn’t tall enough to see over the steering wheel so he slid his hard hat (worked in a wire mill until he became the safety guy and even then still needed the hard hat when he had to go into the plant) into the driver’s seat and I sat on it so I could see over the steering wheel.  He told me to keep it between the rows and not to hit any bales.  I think that night I only actually hit about 4 bales.  Not bad for 60ish acres :).  But I learned how to turn the truck and trailer around without hitting the fence, always a plus.  We got all that hay put up that night but about 2am and none of it got rained on, always another plus!

So then a couple years later, about the time I was 6 or so (remember my birthday is the end of July so who knows exactly my age :)) my dad got a company truck.  It was like an 88 or an 89 Chevy S10, automatic.  Well that truck I could slide the seat all the way up and reach the floor petals.  So I’d go flying through the field in that truck.  But my favorite thing to do was load the dogs up in the bed and haul them around with me.  We had like 3 or 4 dogs at the time :).  Anyway my grandma saw me come flying through the field one day and about had a cow.  She didn’t know I could drive, little lone drive that truck I guess because she freaked out and jumped in the passenger seat with me.  So I’d slam on the gas and slide the dogs to the tailgate and then without notice slam on the break and slide them back into the cab.  She asked me what I was doing and I told her, “Grandma, they like it.” (referring to the dogs)  Yeah I guess I was kind of an ornery kid 🙂