Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Sue Fink’s Imagine That Column, 5/11/98



Last column, I related the sad story of how, through a
freak accident and no fault of mine, I managed to break the windshield of
my car.

This embarrassing blemish that I have had to stare at every
time I drove my car these last few weeks has finally been corrected by a
windshield repair company. No, the man did not leave a box of steaks. I
was happy enough just to have my window restored. This eliminates having
to answer embarrassing questions.

That wasn’t the case several years ago when I broke the
glass in both tractor cab doors on the 7000 Ford tractor. The broken glass
stayed there long enough so Tom could point at it and say, “Yeah, my
wife did that.”

I believe I have mentioned before that something always
seems to happen just about the time I am congratulating myself about how
well things are going. The tractor cab disaster occurred when I was still
relatively new to tractor driving. Of course, I was doing one of my favorite
jobs, baling hay.

When I first started baling, I really had to concentrate
on where I was driving so I would pick up all the hay with the baler. Sometimes
I would kind of forget about the turn I would have to make at the end of
the field, and at the last minute I would realize it and turn frantically
to the right. Whoops, there’s another pile of hay I left laying in the field!

I was driving around the field, trying to pay attention
to everything at once. I was beginning to get the hang of it. If I didn’t
do a perfect job, at least it was tolerable. The only thing left to do was
to bale the outside round on the field.

To be honest, the outside round could be kind of tricky
for me. It required driving the opposite way to pick up the hay, turning
to the left, instead of the right. Of course, I was watching the hay, and
not the branches of the overhanging trees next to the hay field.

Every once in a while a branch would clatter across the
top of the cab, or even scrape along the front window. Of course, sitting
high up in the cab, I thought I was safe from any harm. Not so for the glass
in the cab door nearest the tree line.

Because it was a hot day, the doors on the tractor were
open. When I was out in the middle of the field this was not a problem.
No trees to hit. Looking back, it amazes me that I did not anticipate what
was going to happen.

Suddenly a branch snapped back and struck the door. The
glass in the lower part of the door shattered ever so nicely, but did not
fall out.

At times like this, I am always at a loss for words. I
am usually thinking, “What I am going to tell Tom.”

Would he believe a creative lie? Aliens swooped down to
get a closer look at the tractor and baler and broke the window with the
ultrasonic exhaust from their spacecraft. A deer jumped out of the woods
and broke the window with its huge rack of antlers. Or, my personal favorite,
the baler pitched a rock forward and it broke the window.

No, at times like this, honesty is the best policy. Tell
the truth and tell it quick. It’s like swallowing bad-tasting medicine fast
so you don’t have to taste it. Naturally, Tom could not believe that I didn’t
even think to shut the door before I drove around the edge of the field.
After all, it was common sense. Where have I heard that before?

The glass managed to stay in the door, so there was no
need to take it in to be fixed immediately. After all, other hay fields
were waiting to be baled. A few days later, I was baling on a field that
we rented from a neighbor. Once again, I got down to where I was driving
near the edge of the field. Once again, the tractor doors were open. I
was thinking about shutting the doors before I got too close to any trees.

At this point you may wonder, in light of my previous experience,
why didn’t I just stop the tractor and shut the doors? I wonder about that,
too. Maybe it is just my mission in life to find work for glass repair people.

I saw a small sapling coming up and I thought I could just
squeak by. I slowed the tractor way down and tried to inch by the tree.
That sneaky tree reached out and grabbed the very tip of the door. I stopped
to consider the situation. If I tried to back up, the door might break.
If I tried to drive forward, the door might break. I decided that if I would
ease slowly by, I would make it. Not so!

As I crept past the tree, the door was pulled back like
a slingshot preparing to fling a rock. I cleared the tree, the door hurtled
forward and crashed shut, smashing the glass in the door. There was one
thing Tom had to admit, – at least the doors were a matched set now.

Eventually, I had the pleasure of hauling the doors over
to the glass repair shop. With instructions to tell them who it was that
had broken them.

On the way, I wondered if they had ever heard of a rock
flying up from a baler and breaking a tractor cab window. Or maybe they
believe in aliens?

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