JOINING THE WORK FORCE.

In September 1967, My dad had me start going to work with him with the Holtville Alfalfa Mills. They harvested alfalfa year round and dehydrated it to make cubes, pellets, and other feed products.  The basics of the process was for one machine we called a Swather  to cut  the alfalfa down and leave it in rows, which were then pushed together with rakes into a row suitable for the choppers to grind up and shoot into the trucks. The product was then taken to the mill where it went through final processing in to feed.  The choppers could not pick up too large a row and if it was not large enough it took too much time to get the trucks filled. During the summer the job was easy because the hay was thick, but during winter the hay was short and then and it was a chore to keep enough down for the chopper.  I worked for a week without pay, and at the end of that week, the foreman (Which was also my Uncle Andrew) told me I was doing good so I said “Does that mean you are going to put me on the payroll?” he laughed and said yes.   Problem with the job was it was 7 days a week and we seldom had a day off.

       The hay was thick, and we would cut a few sections and stop and wait for the choppers to catch up. Usually it would go like this. Get to the mill, load up in the company pick-up and head out to whatever field we were in that day, service our equipment and lay down a few sections. Then we would stand around and talk for a while until it was close to lunch time. Then we would lay down a few sections and load up and go to town or a local grocery store or café to eat. Go back to the field lay down a few more sections and stand around talking or working on our rigs until about quitting time and lay down enough sections to keep the choppers going until the night shift arrived.

   Many times if we knew we would not finish a field that day we would take our own cars to the field and work on them during down time. One day we were cutting a field behind the Barbara Worth Country Club and my Uncle and My dad were under my car replacing the starter for me. While they were working, the service truck was parked next to my car and I pumped my tank full of company gas LOL. Every body was taking gas when they got the chance anyway.  I was always grabbing a few gallons. One day in the middle of the week my cousins and I wanted to go cruising, but we’re all pretty broke. Well that afternoon I pulled the choke out on my tractor and then went and got the service truck and filled the tank. That evening we drove to the field and siphoned the gas from the tractor to put in my car.  This became a bad habit but we never got caught, although I thionk my dad was getting wise to us because he made a statement about it was funny how they always knew where we were parked. So we quit this process.

During the winter it was different, we had to keep moving or as Uncle Andrew said “:Cut‘er down and Move” a phrase I still use to this day. Another phrase I learned was from my co-workers.  It seems the swathers at times would get plugged up and leave a big knot of hay for us to straighten out. Many time requiring us to get down and spread the hay then rake it up into the row. So every time we had a problem, regardless of what it was we would say “Hit a knot?”  Again a phrase I have used ever since. 

   The mill had a contract with the New Holland Equipment Co, since they used equipment 365 days a year, to test new products. I was often using a hay rake that had never been used before. I was pretty rough on equipment. Both  because of my age and my wanting to do as much as possible as fast as possible.  One of the New Holland mechanics at the time once said to be “We’re going to keep developing until we have one that is James Proof!!”  Another memory was the day they brought out the first “Hydrostatic drive”  Swather.  Drew had to be the first to try it and he mounted up. With the hydrostatic drive you had one lever to control the forward and reverse. Push to go forward, pull to back up. Well Drew had the header up on that thing and when he pushed to go it went to fast so he pulled back and when he did the back end raised up like a reverse wheelie. LOL so push forward again, and repeat the process. That thing bucked him around and we all waited to see if he would make 8 seconds.   I learned a lot about working and holding a job from that experience, but did not want to make a career of it working all the time. Also in 1967  many of my classmates had gotten their draft notices, I did not want to be in the Army so I joined the Navy.  I was on a program where I joined got, sworn in and then had 120 days before I reported for active duty.

 So I continued to work until June 1967. During the time I was waiting for active duty I had my first run in with the law but that is another story..