Dennis My next door neighbor just retuned from northern harvests in upper Midwest and will return latter to finish the harvest off. Custom combine work from Texas to Canada has been a way of life in this area since the days of "thrasher crews" of the very early 1900's, and my family was no exception, though I'm the last to actually have participated in real agriculture as a way of life and not just an investment.
Combine technology was where I first dealt with complex devices running chains & that was preteen experience working in the fields and shops alongside men...socially unacceptable today of course, which might explain some of the confusion and conflict which our children and young adults express unendingly. Learning to work in ones twenties isn't working out for most and wasn't an option in my generation. Every member of every family had real work to do... regardless of age. We had to work each day in order to survive!
Rick C.
I hear you on that! I was raised on a farm about a mile from this place and even my younger brother who is 6 years younger
didn't do what I had to do on the farm. There are exceptions but farming now is a lot easier with all of the nice cabs and air
conditioning on the tractors. I worked pulling corn and weeds out of the bean fields when I was 8 and into the later years.
My Dad had a corn sheller truck where we went to farmers in the area to shell corn and even at 14 years I drove a tandem
axle truck with the shelled corn to the elevator to get unloaded. I had to sit on a pillow to get up so I could see to drive and
of course it was a manual transmission on the ole International truck with air brakes. My Dad had another older truck which
was an ole middle 50s Ford single axle gas truck which I also drove. We had am old Massey Harris combine which of course,
didn't have a cab so the dust would fly combining the beans. The corn was not combined, a 4-row picker a International 400
tractor was used with a wagon pulled behind the picker. The heater was a "HeatHouser" used to keep you warm which really
worked good since there was a windshield attached to it. Months before I graduated from HS I enlisted into the Air Force since
most of the fellas had to register for the draft and the Vietnam War was going on and that was in '65. The wusses either got
married with kids and deferred or went to college. I new that the Army and Marine Corp. wouldn't be good a good education
when you got out if you were lucky to survive the Vietnam War. Some of my friends got deferred (wussed out) and really never
grew up and since we were the from the "BabyBoomer" generation what you see today is a the generation of "Millennials."
This Country should have done like the Israelis have done, required military service for 2 years so the kids can grow up with
responsibility and appreciation for the Country. Some of the younger generation are good workers and have been raised right
but I can't say that for all of them and my generation. That Massey Harris combine my Dad had, he bought it to combine the
wheat in Kansas/Nebraska when the War was going on. He drove that combine all the way back here to the farm to use when
the harvesting was done. They had a convoy of workers that went out West to help with the harvesting. He put some brandnew
lights on the combine to run with the other fellas at night combining and when he got back here with the combine he parked it
in the field for harvesting and some lowlife idiots stole the lights of of the combine. He was really mad about that I remember!
My Landlord always brought up that trek out West for the harvest and who went with him, my Dad and his friends to help in the
harvest. I barely remember that since I was a little one back then.
Although again, it might take a city block in distance to get up to 20 mph. 
I use to ride a 10-speed