I lied about my age and got a job at 15 driving a 1950 Walter 6×6 dump truck with a 7 spd non synchro transmission. Fortunately, I had been driving my father’s more modern lumber trucks since age 12, so I knew how to handle this monster. My best high school summer job. They even hired me back the next summer.
Suggested by Bernie Neufeld
I’m not sure I would say I was a competent driver of anything at 15 years old, let alone a giant dump truck. I might be confident enough to drive it today, but definitely not back then.
A combine with rear wheel steering. Sensory confusion.
Suggested by Dispicable Moi
Have you ever ridden one of those bicycles with the reversed handlebars? It’s so weird.
A 1980’s era Cat Loader. My dad worked for a construction company when I was growing up and he’d regularly bring me there on the weekends so he could finish up stuff from the week. He was a valuable employee so the owners pretty much let him do whatever he needed. Since it was only the two of us down there he would let me drive/operate the equipment. I spent many an afternoon wheeling that loader around the yard.
Suggested by Nick B
My dad took me to work a lot, but the only thing I ever got to drive was his laptop for a while.
Maybe not that wild but 30 and 40 foot boomlifts. They are a little intimidating when your inside dodging overhead busbars, pipes and hanging conveyor systems. The first time moving one while you’re 30′ in the air will make butthole pucker
Suggested by Alejandro Garza
As I get older, I find myself more afraid of heights than I used to be. A friend put me up in a boom lift a few years back and drove me around a factory standing 30 feet off the ground. Being a good friend he wanted to put a scare in me, and got the whole thing rocking around quite a lot. Maybe that’s why I’m scared of heights? Any therapists here who can tell me what it all means?
In my early teens, I worked at a horse stable. It had a full size ring and 54 individual stables. My job was to take a horse out from the stable and put it in the ring, so I could clear out urine soaked wood shavings and put it in a cart, which was pulled by a 1930s Ford tractor. It wasn’t hard to drive, and at 13, I thought it was the most fun thing I had ever done.
I went to work one day and was told that the tractor had broken down. Seems one of my youthful co-workers needed to put some gas in, but he put it in the radiator. Had a couple of weeks to pull the cart n by hand before it was fixed.
Suggested by Scourge of Richland
Never put gasoline in the radiator of the horse piss express.
A road roller, spent a couple of years in construction out of high school.
Suggested by IB007
Laissez les bons temps rouler.
Diesel Locomotive train engine. My dad worked for EMD (Electro-Motive Diesel) Company and invited me along for a “test drive” of some new equipment they were testing on a diesel locomotive engine. The engineer was kind enough to seat me at the controls as we were moving along at a breakneck speed of 40mph. I didn’t actually “drive” anything, but 10 year old me sure thought I was
Suggested by Jimboy II, The Sequel
This is like when you give your younger sibling a controller but it’s not hooked up to the Super Nintendo.
