Playing in the dirt

[Airedale]

Just curious how many of you spent countless hours playing in the dirt with toy trucks, tractors, bulldozers, as a child then transitioned the apprenticeship over to a real dirt job?

Airedale

 

[Cat is ALL]

I still do both I started running a loader when I was 8 in the summer when I wasn't in school.

 

[backhoe1]

sure did, just couldn't give it up.

 

[Airedale]

Cat is All, when palying in the dirt with toys do you make the associated engine noises, my brother and I always did. LOL

 

[Airedale]

sure did, just couldn't give it up.

Excellent, following the boyhood dream nothing better!

Airedale

 

[Cat is ALL]

haha even made the sound of the engine lugging away with a heavy bucket. Good times haha.

 

[RDG]

I started off in the backyard sand pit, allways had to make the right sounds, me dad and uncle were both into earthmoving so used to go to work with them on Saturdays and school holidays, started operating as soon as I could reach the pedals and pull the levers. Left school when I was 15 only went there to eat my lunch, went to work for my uncle on a TD 9-90, HD14 and a D8-8r been doing it ever since and still loving it.

 

[qball]

i was the largest 1/50th scale earth moving contractor in illinois.i had a fleet that would put kiewit to shame. mostly big road and pond jobs, with the occasional under ground utility project to keep the boys busy in slow times.
all my iron was parked in neat rows at night so the fuel man could hit them, and so the lawn mower wouldn't.
during the occasional work slow down, i would hop in my trusty service truck, er...um, bike and ride around looking for dirt or road projects to watch. once found, i made myself foreman. usually, i could get a little seat time from a friendly operator.

 

[jimmyjack]

i was the largest 1/50th scale earth moving contractor in illinois.i had a fleet that would put kiewit to shame. mostly big road and pond jobs, with the occasional under ground utility project to keep the boys busy in slow times.
all my iron was parked in neat rows at night so the fuel man could hit them, and so the lawn mower wouldn't.
during the occasional work slow down, i would hop in my trusty service truck, er...um, bike and ride around looking for dirt or road projects to watch. once found, i made myself foreman. usually, i could get a little seat time from a friendly operator.

lol .........sounds just like my childhood .......

 

[goodearth13]

Just curious how many of you spent countless hours playing in the dirt with toy trucks, tractors, bulldozers, as a child then transitioned the apprenticeship over to a real dirt job?

Airedale

My Dad was a Land Leveler in Eastern Colorado & every time he broke down he went to Denver to get parts. I was only 4 when I started going with him & almost every dealer we went to would give me some kind of construction toy. One of the first I remember was a Turnadozer from the LeTeurno, it was a rubber tired dozer & it would really move the dirt. Like all of the other guys posting here, I had a complete spread. All the neighborhood boys would come over almost everyday & we built roads, bridges,& most fun of all was water channels, with moms garden hose supplying the river water. Great memories. Of course the summer I turned 14 Dad put me on a D8 & Wooldridge Scraper. Man it was hot, noisy, dusty & really long days & no going to swimming pool. It's a wonder I followed Dad's footsteps, but I can't imagine doing anything else now. Ha, at 63 I guess it's probably too late to learn anything else. Besides, like Mom used to say about Dad: "If he isn't fartin', dust he isn't happy." Kinda fits me too. Great way to make a living if you like working outdoors. No office job for me ever.
C Ya, Patrol Man (Dan) goodearth13 :usa

 

[alan627b]

Guilty as charged! Used to walk to jobs all over the place, and when I got a bike, rode all over the place. The guys used to wonder how I always found the jobs...I kept a sharp eye out on the school bus, and used my ears the rest of the time! Equipment was louder, and my ears were better back then!

When I first moved to Omaha, I lived in an apartment complex behind a shopping center. They had dumped a truckload of dirt in back to fill a low spot, so the other kids and I took my dirt fleet and leveled it for them, I kid you not. We did such a good job, they dumped a second load and we leveled that one too. Probably close to 30 yards worth of dirt!
We didn't get paid....the low spot was behind the garden center, people shopping in there always used to stop and watch us.

You could say the future was set even then...

Thinking about it, you hardly ever see kids watching a job anymore. Gotta love the Nintendo generation....

Alan

 

[swampdog]

We didn't have much compared to kids today. But I did have a white dumptruck with a red box, a bulldozer that threw sparks, and a JD row crop tractor. They all ended up as high hours machines. Thanks to my mother who never threw anything out, we still have them.

Did anyone else dig holes with a shovel, just for fun? I used to dig trenches and underground forts with nothing but a shovel. One was so good that my dad used it for a root cellar after I left home.

 

[redline]

yep,

ya can get the dirt out from under the fingernails but not from in the blood

 

[gr79]

Late 50's to Early 60's outside play times.

I wonder how much radioactivity was in that dirt back then (a-bomb test era).
Wish we all had pics to post of our stuff from back then. Kind of was a way to find out who we were.
Will always remember a friend's Tonka overhead sand loader.
Watched the moving of several whole blocks of new ranch houses (ours included) in SCS Mich (path or I-94) late 50's.
The new blue Ford single axle dump 330/auto hauling dirt loads there. The smell of greased wood in the air.
Started the dirt hobby thing in the new neighborhood. Big stuff, like my prize Tonka mobile clam, never went outside.
Used Popsicle sticks for fencing, the wrappers for cement bags.
Sifted dirt to get different grades for the 'yard'. Dirt roads with tire tracks.

Everyone dug 'forts'. One so big and camouflaged, a tractor mowing the field half dropped into it.
So much for that activity.
The concrete mixer that backed up too far and fell into the basement excavation while pouring footings.
A jeep with winches pulled it out..
Bicycles allowed roaming all day to watch those slow moving monster batch mixers pouring I-94.
The smell of fresh curing compound= summertime. Almost as good as purple inked school mimeographs..:dizzy
Always enjoyed watching a new basement excavation. One contractor dug many around town.
That new red American cable hoe with the hyd bucket looked pretty wore out a few years later.

No job transition resulted here from the field sandbox or by standing. Learned a lot of..something:beatsme.
Thus my interest in this website.

 

[onemank6]

went from shovel to a old dragline but only for a pond

 

[Airedale]

We didn't have much compared to kids today. But I did have a white dumptruck with a red box, a bulldozer that threw sparks, and a JD row crop tractor. They all ended up as high hours machines. Thanks to my mother who never threw anything out, we still have them.

Did anyone else dig holes with a shovel, just for fun? I used to dig trenches and underground forts with nothing but a shovel. One was so good that my dad used it for a root cellar after I left home.

Swampdog;

My brother and I dug down to a pipeline behind our house one day with shovels! Scared my mom good. When my dad got home we found out it was an abandon line. But he did think it was funny either. They made us fill the hole back in. We could of had a real blast digging it.

 

[swampdog]

Swampdog;

My brother and I dug down to a pipeline behind our house one day with shovels! Scared my mom good. When my dad got home we found out it was an abandon line. But he did think it was funny either. They made us fill the hole back in. We could of had a real blast digging it.

Yeah, digging by hand was so easy then! Somehow the urge to dig by hand is gone. Isn't it nice to have an excavator?

 

[Burnout]

i was the largest 1/50th scale earth moving contractor in illinois.i had a fleet that would put kiewit to shame. mostly big road and pond jobs, with the occasional under ground utility project to keep the boys busy in slow times.
all my iron was parked in neat rows at night so the fuel man could hit them, and so the lawn mower wouldn't.
during the occasional work slow down, i would hop in my trusty service truck, er...um, bike and ride around looking for dirt or road projects to watch. once found, i made myself foreman. usually, i could get a little seat time from a friendly operator.

Sooo long ago, you can remember that far back old man?

 

[tdozer]

Guilty as charged! Used to walk to jobs all over the place, and when I got a bike, rode all over the place. The guys used to wonder how I always found the jobs...I kept a sharp eye out on the school bus, and used my ears the rest of the time! Equipment was louder, and my ears were better back then!

Alan

Thatshow i was too. I used to have 2 or 3 of every tonka toy scattered all over the back yard. As i grew i started graduating up to 1/50 scale. Now my old lady says i have too many. I told that every time she says something, Im gonna buy another model. She still says it........

 

[Randy Krieg]

When I was a kid?

Heck, I'm still a kid! Every room in my house is loaded with toys and when no one is watching I get them out and start the night shift... My garage looks like 1/50 scale heavy equipment repair shop.
When I was younger I think I moved about a thousand yards with my Tonka Scraper and wore out 10 pairs of Levis crawling around on my knees. Some people never change...
Regards, Randy