No one asked me about getting caught in the power take off!

 

I met a man this week from Missouri; the first thing I noticed about him was that he had a hook rather than a right hand. Then I realized his entire right arm was prosthesis.  He was standing in front of my table where I was selling LeisaB jewellery to the cruise ships, so I asked him about it.  

He explained that he had become caught in the power take off of a farm machine and lost his entire arm.  “Oh my”,  I exclaimed “the same thing happened to me but quick thinking on the part of a truck driver saved me from losing a limb”.  And we shared our stories.



I would have been standing at the place of the girl in red
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was fifteen that rainy fall Sunday when I became entangled in the Harvester.  We were employed by McCain Produce and did not normally dig on Sundays. However it had been a rainy difficult fall and there were still a lot of potatoes in the ground.  It was cold and drizzly and I was wearing a green oil cloth slicker that was popular in the sixties. 

 

Perhaps I nodded off, over reached to grab a rock at any rate I realized that the sleeve of my jacket was caught in the power take off at the end of the conveyor belt and it was slowly chewing me in!  I screamed and pulled.  The harvesters are very noisy, no one heard me and I made little head way in my battle with the machine.  Soon I was on my knees, my glasses had disappeared and my hair was caught as well.

 

Everything went black.  When I opened my eyes the machinery had all stopped and men were cutting me out of the auger.  My jacket was ripped to shreds, and a section of hair from behind my right ear was missing, scalp and all.  The blood poured, I was sure I was dying.  I don’t remember much more. I think they took me to the hospital and patched me up.

after my hair cut!
 

 

McCain’s shut down all the harvesters and sent out mechanics and sheet metal. Not a wheel rolled until all the augers and power take offs were enclosed. 

I later learned that Laurence Claire, a neighbour from Gordonsville, had been driving the truck under our harvester.  Laurence was wonderful in the field and was always checking on people and machines. He saw my plight, jumped from his truck and ran to the tractor, which was pulling the harvester, and shut it off.  Laurence definitely saved my arm and maybe even my life.

 

I did not go back to the field that year; in fact I did not go back for many years. McCain’s paid me for every hour the harvesters were in the fields.  And no one ever asked me about getting caught in the potato harvester!