Little Man and the #4 Toyota Forklift

 

 

July 2, 1988

 

When I began working for Dale C. Bone Farms on June 20, 1988, I started out pushing empty bins under the cucumber grader.  It was the responsibility of the forklift driver to keep empty bins under the grader and my responsibility to push about 6 empty bins that were lined up on rollers to the front when full bins were pilled from the front.  I had just finished Driver's Education and the forklift driver failed to return to work after lunch.  Dale had a strict policy that nobody would take off during the peak of cucumber season and July 4th weekend was the peak.  I was running out of bins to push and I was way under the grader pushing what empty bins were left on the rollers.  Dale came by on his Kawasaki Bayou four-wheeler.  He asked me why there were hardly any bins under the grader and I explained that the forklift driver had not returned from lunch.  I asked him if I could drive the forklift since I had just graduated from Driver's Ed that day.  Dale looked at me like I was stupid and he looked mad.  He sped away on his four-wheeler and about 3 minutes later, Gary Warren came to me on the #4 Toyota forklift and said "hop on, you've just been promoted to forklift driver".  He drove me to the LP-Gas filling station located down hill from the grader.  He said that it was very simple to fill an LP tank on the lift.  We started filling the tank and LP gas went everywhere, the rubber gasket at the filler was hard and brittle.  The LP gas froze the nozzle to the tank and gas was going everywhere.  If you've never messed with LP gas, it gets very cold and is a liquid until it hits air.  We had several people that worked with us that were volunteer firemen and they came over to help.  I started laughing because he said it was simple. Billy Joyner who I had never met was one of the volunteer firemen that worked there and looked at me and said "what they hell are you laughing at?" I said because he said it was simple and we have like 6 people trying to get this damn hose off the gas tank! They ended up cutting the main valve off and after the nozzle thawed, they were able to remove it. 

    This forklift smoked and used a lot of oil.  Every morning, I drove it to the shop to check the oil and blow the radiator out with air.  One day, Dale saw me at the shop under the hood and asked me what the hell was I doing there!?  I told him the lift uses a lot of oil, runs hot and I was checking the oil and adding oil.  I told him that my dad told me if I ever started the lawn mower without checking the oil, he would whoop my ass!  I also explained that blowing cucumber dirt and leaves from the radiator and engine would prevent it from running hot.  You do not impress Dale Bone but I did!  He smiled with that grin of his and walked away.  I was not very well liked by some because here is a 63 lb.  15 year old kid that just started working a few weeks earlier and here I am promoted and getting a lot of attention from the owner and my supervisors.  One day, another worker named Chris showed me how to flip the bins over with the forklift.  He said that I was too little to be flipping damaged bins over by myself so he showed me how to do it with the forklift.  A few hours later, they removed an empty bin from the front of the grader and flipped it upside down so it could be identified where it was damaged. As a driver, it was also my responsibility to remove any damaged bins.  Chris told me to go and flip it like he showed me and with Dale being there, it would show him how "advanced" I was as a driver.  Little did I know that Dale did not ever want someone to flip bins with the forklift.  I drove around to the front, lowered my forks  on the bin and backed up causing the bin to roll over where I could haul it away.  Dale got off his four-wheeler, came on the right side of my forklift and cussed me out!  He said: "If you can't get your lazy ass off that forklift and roll it over by hand, get the fuck off this forklift, punch out and go the fuck home!"  Embarrassed because some of the kids that worked there also went to school with me, I carried the bin away.  I drove to the back of the grader, hid and cried.  After 15 minutes, I went to my supervisor; Kelly and told her I needed to use the phone to call home because I quit.  I explained how Dale talked to me and how Chris had set me up.  She asked me to wait about 5 minutes and I agreed.  She called Gary, my other supervisor and he called Dale on the radio.  Dale came by on the four-wheeler and said: "get your damn ass on the back of this four-wheeler!"  He explained that what I did was dangerous because I could have hurt someone on the floor near the grader.  He also explained that he was aware of why I did it.  He rode me around the whole complex and told me that he was laying off all the young'ins after the week but he was keeping only me.  He told me that he was not going to let me quit and said I was going to work for him until I died.  I ended up driving that forklift the rest of the summer moving bins around the warehouses and moving bins of tobacco.  When the Fall crop of cucumbers started, I went back to loading the grader with empty bins on the forklift.  When school started, he let me work after school and on weekends.  When the fall season was over, there was nothing I could do after school unless there was a teacher workday.  It was this forklift, and the events that happened that launched my career in forklifts because the following year, I was placed in the shop to work only on forklifts.  Dale had 40 of them! 

 

The lift was painted in 1989 and renumbered as #13.  When I started back on February 25, 2013, this lift was the only original lift left of the 40.  Dale had decided to keep this lift and it had the number #37.  I have been asked to renumber all the lifts and this one will be renumbered as #4 again!

 

Stamped with a center punch on the left rear Over Head Guard leg is "4" (It was there in 1988) and yes, it still runs and works like it did back in the day.