Young Tom's Yellow Trail

Tom Kirk, 'Young Tom' was one of Dale Stark's crew when Tim Slessor filmed The Yellow Trail from Texas. Tom has recently been in touch with the following note of his experience.

There is more about Dale Starks in the blog entry for 3 December 2007; more about working the American harvest on the blog for 7 February 2008. Here's Tom:

So sorry to hear that Margie [Dale's wife] passed. She was so tired of the harvest on that year, and kept saying that Dale promised to retire soon. She was a wonderful woman.

My father worked for Massey Ferguson and for a period of time worked the part/service brigade for the traveling harvest. Over the summers we had traveled out west and watched the cutters in the field and traveling northward. I took a year off between my junior and senior year and wanted to see other parts of the country. Dad arranged a chance for me to interview with Dale, and even though he preferred to hire married couples, he agreed to hire myself and one other single guy.

I started the first of April at the ranch rebuilding the 510s and 750s. I believe we had four new 760s that he purchased that year. In total we had four 760s, three 750s and two 510s. We worked 7 days a week from sun up to sun down and then a little more, with our first day off being the 11th of July, due to a rain out. We had a crew of 6 married couples and two single guys that headed south to Witchita Fall, Texas. Larry came along with us at the start and then headed home once we were running. There was one couple that had worked the previous year with Dale, other then that we were all new.

Richard and Tina Restly and myself were the only ones that worked the full harvest. I kept in touch with them while I finished my education at Oklahoma State. Richard loved the harvest, Tina hated it. When Dale hired me he did so on the basis that I had to take care of my own food and cooking. So when I first met Richard and Tina we made an arrangement for Tina to cook and I would split the food cost with them. She was a fiery young girl with a temper that Richard could set off at a glance and with a baby in toe, life in a small trailer, it was very hard on her. But she was a wonderful cook, and we had some great times together.

After the second week of harvest we had lost half the crew, by the end of the first month we had lost all that we had started with. Tim [Slessor] and his crew showed up in Manchester, OK, and filmed our move to Texas. I remember him well and loved hearing the difference between our countries. Most memorable was the fact that tv viewing was something they paid for, something unheard of here at that time.

When I ran the rocks though the combine Tim came running over knowing that Dale was on his way over and wanted to make sure I wouldn't have an issue filming me getting chewed up by Dale, but I figured Dale couldn't get to mad on film so I told Tim to stay as close to me as he could. I know he loved filming that segment.

We split into two groups with all the new help, some cutting in Oklahoma, some heading into Kansas. I went to Isabel, KS. before meeting up with everyone in Nebraska. Tim showed up to interview us there and to follow the trip up to Montana. We had a new couple Mike and Sandy Novakowski from Hara Oklahoma. Mike and Sandy stayed on though Montana and some of Canada I believe, but then headed back home to work on his father's and father-in-law's farm. He was responsible for getting me into Oklahoma State. I worked for his parents the following summer.

Montana was by far the most fun with the cooler weather, the wide open country and the people we worked for. Dale gave Richard, Tina and myself some time off to drive up into Glacier National Park. On a shoe string, in an old beat-up pickup it was still a wonderful trip. After that Richard, Margie and I drove down to Great Fall to drop off the 510s to a Hutterite Colony. Tim should have been there to film that, it was a hoot.... On the way back we stopped at the first McDonalds I had seen since I had started with Dale.

Once in Montana life got easier for Dale with equipment running smoother and a crew that had some time behind the wheel. We had more single guys so it made life more difficult for Margie. I think at one time she was driving trucks and feeding 6 or 7 single guys. I drove a group up into Canada then came back and loaded up a group that headed back to Nebraska to start in the corn. Richard and Tina stayed in Canada, and Tim was up there for their final days before heading south The film crew then came down to interview me. I must have disappointed him because he never used any of that clip. By that time I had had enough and I knew this movie was going to glamorize the wonderful time as a harvester, as I am sure you saw it. My fear was that the majority of the kids seeing it and coming over from England only to find out it was way more work and not what they expected. I think they did take my words to heart with their comment that it wasn't as glamorous as it was made out to be.

I liked what I was doing on the harvest. What was most difficult about the job was the life style. Harvest work was a type of Gipsy work and you were treated that way. Not so much by the people we worked for but by anyone we came across and told what we were doing for a living. They would see you differently. It may have been a lousy feeling at the time but it has made a memorable impression on me not to ever judge people by what their role in life is.

So many memories this brings back. Dale and I were never very close. He never got to excited, always kept an even keel. Slept a lot in the truck, and kept an eye on how fast we were driving, how clean we kept the grain, and what went over the back end.

Comments

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that was an interesting read.

Posted by: stuart | 02/17/2009 at 12:12 AM

having just watched the dvd i found your story most interesting.looking back 30 years it reminds me of how much simpler life used to be.also you wonder what those people are doing now?sorry to read margie passed away i only hope she had some years of enjoyable retirement!

Posted by: a martin | 09/29/2009 at 09:19 AM

I'm a big fan of Yellow Trail and can say that both it and Dylan Winters 2000 Mile Harvest inspired me to follow my dream and do the harvest trail 10 years ago. I will agree that it turned out to not be as glamourous as the videos made it out to be but then nothing is as good as it appears to be on TV. Sometimes it was better.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the USA on harvest and would do it all again but for other commitments I have now. I made great friends on harvest and learned a thing or two about hard work that have stood me well.

I would say to anyone wishing to do the harvest to go with an open mind and be prepared to learn new things, work hard when its dry and to sit around a lot when its wet and you will have the time of your life.

Posted by: Laurence Curran | 01/04/2010 at 02:18 PM