One day when I was 12, I wrapped up a long, hot day as a stacker. It was 9 p.m. We were all worn out. Uncle Bill had taken the tractor around to the gas pump. The rest of us were stuck unloading hay bales. My back was sore. And the ham, biscuit, and pork chop I slid into my pocket when Grandpa rushed me from the breakfast table that morning were long gone. I dragged another bale from the wagon to the conveyer, which would carry it up and dump it in the hay loft. Only 20 hay bales left. I was dreaming of dinner. BOOM! We heard a loud explosion and spun around to the north. Something was on fire. Grandpa yelled, “Bill!” We jumped in the truck and peeled out. Over the rise, we could see the tractor. It was burning. As we got closer, we saw the gas handle was still in the tank. Dad turned off the pump and the blaze slowly burned down. The gasoline had over flowed and run down the sides of the tractor. When it hit the hot manifold, BOOM, it blew up. Uncle Bill was blown about 20 feet off the tractor. He was lucky. No eyebrows, but lucky. Other than that slight flaw of engineering, the John Deere 4020 tractor was a marvel of innovation. It was a leap forward using the latest technology. More than 184,000 Model 4020 tractors were built between 1964 and 1972. It was the most popular tractor of its time. With the various attachments, the 4020 could do almost anything. It had a hay bailing attachment. It had a plow attachment. It had a post-hole digging attachment. It had a manure spreader and later a fertilizer spreader. “Who puts a gas tank on top of an engine?” I thought. A Marvel of Innovation
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