Farewell to the Field Car

Longtime readers of this blog will recall my two previous stories titled, Boys & Field Cars and Return of The Field Car. You know that my sons have had a lot of good fun with our old Ford Taurus station wagon. Last I spoke of it, which was earlier this spring, the car was hopelessly mired in the mud.

The old car stayed stuck for a month or so before one of our neighbors (a farmer who my sons help with hay) came over and pulled it out with his backhoe. He got it to the road. Robert and James got it rolling down the road towards our property and steered it into the back yard.

Robert figured the car needed a new battery but he didn’t want to spend the money for one. He found an assortment of old car batteries from various junk cars around the neighborhood but none of them would hold a charge. So the car stayed put for the summer.

But the Taurus has not been neglected. Robert gave it a new paint job—from grey to camouflage. And he decided to modify the back end a bit. Specifically, he cut part of it off. He started with a jigsaw. After quickly ruining every metal-cutting blade I own, he resorted to cutting by hand with a hacksaw. I told him he might want to try a cold chisel and a hammer to slice through the sheet metal. A couple hours and a couple blood blisters later he had removed a good-size section of car. Then he duct-taped the rough metal edges and bolted on a couple of lengths of metal conduit to the sides. It was transformed from a common field car to a custom-deluxe field car. Here’s a picture:



Unfortunately, the faithful old vehicle never made it back to a field. Last weekend, we called a man to come haul the car away. Winter is coming. We need to clean up around here. The kids understood. They posed for pictures to remember their beloved field car:



Another reason the car had to go was the barn we are building near it. Well, it’s just a storage shed, but we like to call it a barn. You can see the deck in the background of this next picture:



A fellow named Rick (can't remember his last name) from Cortland NY came to get the car. He has a full time job with the highway department and picks up junk vehicles as a part time business. We saw his add in the weekly "pennysaver" newspaper. He takes cars and other junk metal away for free and cashes them in at the scrap yard.

Rick grew up on a farm and loves farming. His dad still farms at 65 years old. But Rick says there is no money in farming any more, and he sounded sad about that. So, with a wife and three kids, he has a regular job and his own part time hauling business. I don’t think we could have given that old field car to a nicer person.

Here’s a picture of Rick and our old car loaded on his truck.



Farewell to the field car........