Budd Goodyear
I learned to drive when I was nine. Dad had bought a 1947 Willys Jeep. Dad built a plywood top for it, but it had no doors or rear window. The Jeep had 4-wheel drive and we used it for errands around Maxwell and Mohawk and as a tractor. It had a bumper weight of 275 pounds mount behind the front bumper to increase traction in the fields.
About plows: plows were named for the length of the plow shear and the number of shears mounted on each plow. A shear is the bottom part of the plow that cuts the soil which is turned over by the roll-board. Common sizes back then were 2-bottom 14 inch, 3-bottom 14 inch and 2-bottom 16 inch. Dad bought a “1-bottom-16” to turn soil when pulled by the Jeep.
In the spring of 1948, I was plowing a timothy field which had not been mowed the previous fall. Timothy stalks were still standing and pretty thick in some places. After a few rounds I noticed the Jeep engine was heating up. The gauge needle pointed to the line between “normal “and “hot.” I had seen Dad do some tricks to make things work when it wasn’t going well. When the plow would bog down the Jeep he would get on the step outside the driver’s doorway and jump up and down to give the left side wheels traction. The right side wheels were in the furrow which was lower and had the Jeep’s weight on them.
I thought, to cool the engine all I have to do is trip the plow up out of the ground and drive around the field a couple of times. Soon, Dad caught up with me and that was the end of my plowing experience for the time being.
In December that year our neighbor Ray Watson came walking down the road from his mother’s home north of us a half mile or so. Dad said to me, “Jump into the Jeep and drive Ray home.” His farm house was about a mile from ours, south on our road to what is now CR West 500 N, then west a half mile or so. We had had some snow which had melted, but the temperature was below freezing so there was a bit of ice here and there.
I pulled the Jeep out into the road and invited Ray to hop in. I drove him to his house. On the way back, just north of Jesse Lowder’s home at corner of West 500 N and our road, N 25 West, the road went downhill to cross a small stream. The hill was icy. I slowed as much as I could, but thought I didn’t slow enough. I stepped on the brake. Around the Jeep went into the ditch on the west side of the road. The front bumper was set on ground on the west side of the deep ditch and the front wheels were not touching anything. The rear wheels were touching the road, but had absolutely no traction. I had high-centered the Jeep. I walked home and reported the problem.
We had no phone back then so Dad drove us to Ray Watson’s farm to ask him to bring his tractor and pull the Jeep from the ditch. We drove back to the Jeep and waited for Ray. Ray made quick work getting the Jeep back on the road. I drove the Jeep home hesitantly; Dad followed in our old car.
Budd Goodyear of Wasilla, Alaska graduated in 1957 from Hancock Central High School. He is currently retired from management with Anchorage Municipal Light and Power, and he enjoys sharing stories of growing up in Hancock County.
