wri t es Simon says
by Simon Hastelow
Learning to drive Artist - Scott Burdick (1967) Photo courtesy of The American Gallery
I recently saw a clip of a young girl driving a tractor, I’m guessing on her family’s farm - the caption stated that she was 12 years old. All pretty normal, you’d think, for a farm-girl, but the comments online would suggest otherwise. I know it’s always advisable to stay well clear of the comments on social media, this is where the keyboard warriors hang out spewing their bile on to anything and everything, but I was going to comment myself until I saw some of the ridiculous complaints about: - how irresponsible her parents were - how she’d be a danger on the roads - how she’d be uninsured, etc., etc... None of which were relevant at all for someone driving on private land, but the mouth-breathers can’t help themselves.
I also learned to drive on a tractor. Back in the early 80s my parents bought a bit of very rough land next to their house, it was useless for anything, and only weeds grew on it, but my dad had a plan to flatten and cultivate it. Obviously he bought a tractor, which also became the first vehicle I drove, a couple of years before I got into anything road-going. It was perfectly safe, probably the slowest thing I could have driven at the time, but it gave me a good introduction to driving, although I do remember getting a telling off a time or two for only focussing on the wheels and where they were sitting in the ruts.
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Shortly after that he also bought a small dump truck to help move the rubble and other detritus around. That was an experience in itself as it was rear-wheel-steer, and you definitely cannot see the where the front wheels are as there’s a small skip in the way. Anyway over a couple of years my parents turned this ⅓ acre plot into an orchard and vegetable patch, and that tractor was indispensable. Not that it helped my driving, I failed my first test due to ‘over confidence’!
