Combines, Cars and Cultural Changes

I barely noticed the brown pickup truck approaching on our busy county road. My mind was on the task of checking for contents that possibly awaited me in our roadside mailbox. However, the truck did have my full attention when it suddenly stopped next to me, straddling both lanes of the road. I did not recognize the truck or the nervous but determined looking man behind the wheel. He was not interested in me as I first thought. There was not a, “How ya doin’ Dan” nor a question about the round bales of hay nearby. He was totally fixated on two things, what he could see in his rearview mirror, and what he might see through his windshield. It was obvious that he knew approaching drivers on our road could be confused, and unprepared to deal with a stopped truck blocking their path.

Caught in the moment, I too wondered about the sanity of the driver in the brown pickup truck. But only for an instant did I wonder. I had observed this scene before. In fact, I had been a part of a scene like this. So, it was easy to make the prediction that some wide piece of farm equipment would soon be on its way, on the rather narrow bridge a hundred yards or so behind the brown pickup truck. In this case, since this is the harvest season, the wide piece of equipment in question was a combine, which would have plugged traffic on the bridge, were it not for the brown pickup forcing motorists to stop, where it would be possible for car and combine to pass each other. This maneuver can sometimes try the patience of unaware motorists on narrow roads. However, the end result allows for safe and possible passage of motorists to and from their way to work, and the same for farmers, to and from their way to work.

It is a psychological wonder of how a simple observation can spark stories of yesteryear. And so, let me tell you about my wife. Lynne was raised near, and learned to drive on and around the busy Dixie Highway, that runs through Louisville Kentucky. While it is true, that I have been the receiver of Lynne’s suggestion that I could be a little more enthusiastic when entering traffic, this is not a story about Lynne’s driving philosophy. This instead, is a story of a hustle and bustle city trained driver, who learned and demonstrated the code of behavior needed to get wide, slow farm equipment from one place to another safely.

When we were first married, Lynne had spent time on farms as a child. However, she was not so familiar with active production agriculture. She was a fast learner though. She was especially quick to achieve the knowhow needed to make a tractor behave in the field. For instance, on a particular day when I was sequestered to the hospital to deal with a kidney stone, she was able to round bale a readied alfalfa field with just instructions from me over a telephone call. Of course, bailing mostly involves driving forward. Lynne will admit, backing an implement presents a much greater challenge. That being said, at the end of that first experience round bailing hay, Lynne backed the bailer perfectly into one of the twelve-foot-wide bays of our tool shed, while my brother and my dad looked on. My brother said that afterward, she climbed down off of the 3020 John Deere and walked past them with an air of someone who had performed such tricks all their life.

There have been many tasks Lynne learned over the years that have made me proud. Truthfully, some tasks she gladly mastered, some she just put up with. One event though makes me smile to this day.

Many years ago, we farmed some ground southwest of Columbus, where the hills are steep and the roads are narrow. On one fall day, Lynne was driving south on a county road in that area, running an errand for me. At a crossroad, Lynne was able to safely get around a slow-moving combine headed in the same direction. With the stranger’s combine not far behind her, she found herself driving up a notoriously steep hill whose crest blinded northbound traffic from seeing any southbound traffic that might be approaching. Lynne recognized the danger, and she knew the maneuver that would help. Like the brown pickup truck that stopped in front of our mailbox, Lynne crested the hill and stopped just beyond with flashers on, blocking any possible oncoming traffic until the combine that followed could see and be seen by all concerned. Not long after the incident, the combine driver was able to thank Lynne profusely for her kind and knowledgeable act. To the surprise of both, the combine driver was Carl Leinhoop, a good friend of ours and a friend of mine since 4-H days.

It goes to show that we as drivers, may not know the person responsible for slowing us down. We may not know why another driver would do something out of the ordinary, like stopping in the middle of a county road, blocking all traffic for no apparent reason. However, there are times when the trust we have in the knowledge of others, proves to be a most valuable thing.