Chapter 7

We were standing on the back porch when Malena came out. Her long hair was braided and she wore a man’s shirt that fit her so snug, there was no doubt she had been hiding a nice set of woman-size breasts all this time. Her denim trousers fit her backside as well as Lucia’s fit her. Tom recovered from his stare and helped her onto the wagon seat, then climbed up to sit beside her.

I looked over to see Alejandro’s and Joaquin’s eight kids standing in the doorway of the barn. I waved to them and pointed to Tom’s wagon. I knew they’d want to be there when we unloaded the tractors and learned to drive them. The four boys helped the four girls into the wagon and we were off.

The sun was just rising over the mountaintops to the east of Yuma County when we headed out. Five of us were in the lead on horseback. Tom and Malena were on the wagon seat and the eight kids were sitting in the wagon bed. They were leaning out on both sides, looking past Tom, Malena, and the team of horses.

When we arrived at the depot, there were at least a dozen men and boys standing around the loading dock. They were looking up at the flatcar with the five, bluish-gray, Fordson tractors chained down.

Rodrigo, Bruno, Miguel and Alonso were the first to run toward the dock. They never slowed as they put their hands on the dock and leaped up, to run toward the flatcar. Just as quick, their sisters and cousins ran up the steps to the dock, to look the tractors over.

I stood on the ground, reaching up for Lucia as she sat on her horse looking toward the tractors. She looked down at me with a smile, then leaned out to fall into my outstretched arms. She was laughing as I carried her to stand on the waist high boards of the dock.

Juan Carlos, Alejandro and Joaquin were walking up the steps in front of me. At the top, I turned back to see Tom reaching up as he stood beside the wagon wheel. Malena leaped into his outstretched arms and I could hear her laugh from where I stood. My tall friend carried his new found love across the way to stand her on the dock beside Lucia.

By the time I looked around, Joaquin and Alejandro were taking the chains and binders loose from the tractors. The four boys were piling the chains down onto the loading dock as the men took them loose.

The flatcar was spotted next to the only wooden ramp on the dock. The tractor in the middle of the five was parked crossways of the flatcar, with the rear-end toward the ramp.

I had no idea how we would ever unload these tractors, but there was a lump of pride in my throat the size of my right fist as I looked them over.

I heard a horse clopping to a stop behind me and turned to see Luther sitting beside a beautiful young Mexican woman in his buggy. In the back seat, I saw his two sons, who were maybe five and six years old. They were pointing toward the tractors as Luther helped his wife to the ground. She took one son and Luther took the other as they brought them over and lifted them to stand on the dock.

The crowd was gathering more and more as people walked up to see what was happening.

Luther stepped up to me with his hand on his wife’s elbow and spoke with a proud smile, “Les, this is my wife, Allece.

“Allece, this is my new friend I spoke of, Les Savage.” This woman is every bit as beautiful as Lucia and she was all smiles as she reached out to shake my hand.

“Allece, I am proud to meet the woman who makes Luther have a smile on his face each time I see him.”

“Thank you, Les. It is nice to meet you. I have heard a lot of good things about you over the past two days and I’m proud Luther brought our two sons and me here this morning. I see Lucia over there, please excuse me as I greet my friend. You and Luther may carry on with your business.”

I turned to see Luther holding his two sons in his arms. Before he spoke, I knew right then, I wanted a son of my own – two sons actually.

When he told me their names, each of them reached out to shake hands with me, just like a man.

Behind Luther, stood Renaldo. With him were two Mexican men about my age. I looked for the wagons and saw them parked out away from the loading dock. There must have been twenty or more, women and children seated in the two wagons and another twenty men and women standing on the ground around them.

“Señor Les, I have brought two very skilled tractor drivers here to help on the farms. This is Dante and Danato Alvarez, the brothers I told you about. They have been driving tractors over in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. They wish to have a job here in Yuma County so they may marry their sweethearts and stay close to home.”

Both young men were smiling as I reached out to shake with them. “You two men are the only ones here this morning who have ever driven tractors. Will you show us how to start them, and drive them off the flatcar for us? Do this and you’ll both have jobs with us for as long as you want them.”

“Si, Señor Les, we will teach you and the others how to drive and we will forever be very grateful to you for hiring us,” Danato told me.

The loading dock was full of bystanders and the street was filling with gawkers as Dante stepped up to sit on the seat of the tractor in the middle of the flat car. Joaquin and Alejandro were standing beside me as we watched the brothers.

Danato stood beside the tractor first, and pointed to a curled, metal stick on the side of the engine, “This is the oil check-stick, we will need to check the engine oil each time before we start the engine.” He showed us as he pulled the stick out and showed us the oil on it and the marks for the oil level.

On the front of the tractor was a twist-off cap and he explained this one, “This is the radiator cap. This holds the water that keeps the motor cool. We have to check the water and oil each time before we start the motor.”

With that done, he stepped to the side of the tractor and screwed the cap off a small tank to look inside. “This is the gasoline tank. It only holds a little bit, but that is all that is needed, and it is now full.”

Then he opened a bigger cap on top of the tractor, in front of the steering wheel. He looked inside that tank then told us, “This one is the kerosene tank, it is now full and we will need to fill it each day, and sometimes, two times in a long day.”

Pointing to a valve on the side of the motor, he looked at me. “This opens the gasoline. Turn the small handle this way and the tractor will start on gasoline. The reason you do this is, it will start fast on gasoline and not fast on kerosene. Then when the tractor motor is running, we will turn the gasoline off and turn this lever on – This one lets the kerosene go to the motor to make the tractor run all day.”

Dante waved to us from his seat on the tractor and we walked over to watch what he was doing. “This is the spark lever. To start the tractor motor, we advance the spark lever so the spark will be hot to make the gasoline burn fast in the motor. Then, when the tractor motor is running on kerosene, we move this lever back until the motor runs better.”

I looked at Joaquin and Alejandro, and both of them smiled, nodding their heads. They knew more than me if they had learned how to start a tractor already.

Danato stood in front of the tractor and I stood to the side as he reached for the crooked crank handle extending from the front. I knew what this was. I had seen men start automobiles back in Manhattan. With one hand on top of the tractor, Danato leaned down and slowly turned the crank, then it stopped turning. He waved to Dante, “Ready?” he yelled. When Dante yelled, “Si” he gave the crank another hard fast turn. The tractor motor sputtered and stopped. The next time he turned the crank, the tractor roared to life and I jumped back, nearly falling off the flatcar.

Dante waved to us, then turned to the people behind him and waved them out of his way, as the tractor slowly crept back toward the ramp. The iron wheels front and rear were screeching as they rolled over the steel parts of the flatcar, then on the wooden parts, there was no sound as the cleats began grinding into the wood.

As Dante backed the tractor slowly down the ramp, I walked over in front of it and watched. I looked around to see Lucia smiling at me. She waved and I waved back. I saw Juan Carlos and Tom standing aside. They were like me, they watched the tractor closely, as if it was a big animal creeping past.

Dante reached the bottom of the ramp and turned the steering wheel, making the tractor back around with the front pointing toward the shorter ramp leading to the ground. He didn’t stop until the tractor was on the ground, away from the last ramp. Then he stopped the tractor, leaving the motor running as he stepped to the ground. The crowd cheered as if he was a hero. To all of us here today, anyone who can start a tractor, drive it off the flatcar, down two ramps and park it on the ground – is a hero.

The other four tractors were parked with two on each end, each with the front toward the middle of the flatcar. Dante stepped up to sit on the seat and Danato motioned for Alejandro to show him what he had learned. I stepped in close too as Alejandro checked the oil and water, opened the small gasoline tank and looked inside. Then he opened the kerosene tank to look inside. Danato nodded when he reached for the gasoline lever to open it. He looked at Danato again – and again he got the nod.

“Alejandro, turn the crank until you feel it come to a hard place, then when Dante is ready, you turn it hard and fast. Be careful of the crank, the motor can kick back and break your arm if you’re not ready. Always, be ready to turn loose of the crank handle and get your arm back away from it,” Danato told him as Joaquin and I watched and listened.

That part, I didn’t like already.

When Alejandro turned the crank, he really turned it fast and the tractor motor started. He turned to grin at me and I slapped him on his shoulder.

Dante drove the tractor to the middle of the flatcar, then turned the front wheels as the tractor crept along, finally starting down the ramp, forward this time. When Dante parked the tractor beside the first one, he really got a lot of cheers. He left that one running and went back to the next one. Before he stepped up to sit on the seat, he looked at me and pointed to the tractor.

“Señor Les, you drive this one off,” he told me after he had checked the oil in the engine.

“Noooo – no way.”

“Yes, we will show you. You have seen us drive the tractors.”

“Where’s the brake?” I asked and they laughed.

“Here, and, here. There are two brakes, one for each rear wheel,” he said as he put his hand on each one.

“Will either of them stop the tractor?” I had to know this because I was about to drive a tractor for the first time in my life and it was still parked on a railroad flatcar. When I looked down at the ground, it looked like I was on top of a mountain.

“Si,” he told me and nodded.

“Now set the spark like I showed you.”

“Here?” I asked as I moved the lever.

“Si, you learn fast. Now make sure the gear stick is out of gear.”

“You didn’t show me that part. What do I do now?”

“This stick in the middle, between your legs is the gearshift stick. The gear numbers are raised on the bottom, see them?” He pointed to the numbers.

“Now, shake the stick, if it moves freely, it is out of gear. If it will not move, it is in gear. Always make sure the stick is out of gear before starting the tractor. ALWAYS, OK?”

“OK.” I shook the stick and when it wiggled, he told me it was out of gear.

Joaquin was going to start this one and I waved to him that I was ready. I hoped I was anyway.

With one hard fast turn of the crank, the tractor was running. “Push the spark lever back!” Dante yelled above the noise of the tractor.

When I did, the motor began running smoother.

“Now, put your foot on the clutch pedal and push it to the bottom.” He pointed to a pedal that looked just like a brake pedal to me. I pushed it down to the metal step and held it there, then he pointed to where the ‘1’ was raised in the metal at the bottom of the gearshift. “Push the stick up in first gear while your foot is on the clutch.”

I did, then looked at him.

“Ease your foot up slowly and the tractor will move forward. When you get close to the ramp, I will tell you when to turn. DO NOT, push the clutch pedal down when the tractor starts down the ramp or it will run away with you.”

I looked at him and he told me, “You can do this, Señor Les. Renaldo told us that you can do anything.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I’ve never done this before.”

“Ease your foot off the clutch and soon, you will drive your first tractor. There is no feeling like it, when an hombre drives his first tractor.”

I eased my foot up until I thought the tractor would never start forward. Then, it moved and I raised my foot some more. The tractor was slowly moving toward the center of the flatcar and as I neared the ramp, I almost stopped it.

Dante told me, “Turn the steering wheel toward the ramp ... Now turn it some more. Now, turn it back the other way to go straight to the bottom. DO NOT put your foot on the clutch going down a hill – NEVER!”

I did as he said as he walked beside the tractor and told me what to do. Then, without him telling me, I turned the steering wheel toward the other ramp.

“Yes, that is good. Now, turn the steering wheel so that you will park the tractor beside the others. Then push down on the clutch and move the stick back out of gear.” He was walking beside me as I drove the tractor slowly off the dock.

By the time I stopped the tractor and stood to take a step to the ground – I was shaking all over. The crowd cheered and clapped until I waved them off, like there was nothing to it – like I knew what I was doing. Then, I looked around to find Lucia. She was smiling and waving to me as I walked back toward the flatcar.

I waved for Tom to come up with us and he waved back to tell me no, shaking his head.

I motioned for Alejandro to sit on the tractor so Joaquin could start this one. He was even better than I was, and in no time it seemed, he had his tractor parked. I motioned for Joaquin to drive the last one and he was grinning when he waved to his kids. He and Alejandro both did a good job of driving the tractors off the flatcar and parking them.

There had been two long chains and two chain binders, holding each tractor down to the flatcar. Rodrigo, Alonso, Miguel and Bruno carried the heavy chains out to Tom’s wagon and loaded them into the sidebox.

The crowd had already started walking away, now that the big show was over. The tractor motors were still running and some people were walking around them, looking them over.

I told Alejandro to show Dante where Mack Connor’s blacksmith shop was, and go with him so the Connors could measure the hitch on the tractor. When he looked at me with a puzzled look, I explained that we were going to rework the mule and horse implements so that the tractors would pull them. He grinned, shaking his head as he motioned for Dante to follow him. The fast walking Paso Fino was stepping high and fast, with the tractor following along behind. I didn’t know the tractors would travel that fast. That must be why they have three gears, besides reverse.

Tom pulled his wagon up as close as he could to the front of Martin’s Hardware Store. Then, with all the new hired hands helping us, we carried small pails, water buckets, and wash tubs of seed out to the wagon. It was a good thing Tom had his end board in place because the wagon bed was filled with seed buckets. The Martin’s had marked on the side, the name of the seed in each bucket. We must have had fifty buckets the size of water buckets like the ones out at the farm. I know I counted four wash tubs of bundled plant sets and many more smaller pails of different seeds.

Mr. Martin was asking me about seeing the five new tractors down at the depot and the one which had been driven down the street toward the blacksmith shop. I told him that we’d gotten them on a deal from a Ford Automobile Dealer in Tucson and he looked at me with an odd look on his face.

“Les, walk back here behind the store for a minute. I have something back here that would really work good with one of your tractors.”

“Do you also sell tractor implements?” I asked as we walked between the buildings.

“I have a rubber-tired, flatbed wagon that was sent to me as a demonstration implement over a year ago. It was parked on the street in front of the store for months until people complained about it. No one wanted it and I hired two men to pull it around back, out of the way.”

“What would I do with it?”

“For one thing, you could haul your farm hands to and from the field. For another, when you begin harvesting, you’ll need a way to haul produce to town to load the train cars. Horses and wagons are good, but unless you make them run, they are not as fast as that tractor which passed by earlier.” By that time we were standing beside the four-wheeled, rubber-tired wagon. The tongue was shorter, made to be pulled by a truck or even a tractor.

I had seen men kicking the tires on automobiles before and I walked around to kick all four tires. They had plenty of air in them, but they still felt soft to me.

“This may not haul a heavy load. The tires seem to be soft when I kicked them.”

“Give me thirty dollars for it and I’ll throw in a tire pump and a steel pin for the hitch.”

“Make it two tire pumps and two pins and you’ve got a deal. How will we get it back around front?”

“Send three of your man back here and tell them to pull it down behind the stores, to where your tractors are parked. This wagon rolls easy on the rubber tires.”

I went back to find Renaldo to tell him what I needed. When I told him about the rubber-tired wagon, he remembered seeing it. I told him that it was ours now, and where it was parked. I told him that he needed three of his new hired hands to go with him to pull it down to where the tractors were parked.

Mr. Martin came out with the two tire pumps and the two hitch pins. I handed one of the pins to Renaldo and put the pumps and the other pin in the side-box on Tom’s wagon.

I heard a tractor behind me and looked back to see Dante driving the tractor back toward the depot. Alejandro rode his horse over to where I stood and I asked him if anything was wrong.

“No, Señor Connor told us he had the measures he needed and to tell you that he and his son will bring their smithy-wagon to the farm early tomorrow to start on the implements.”