Write about your first crush.

MY FIRST CRUSH

my first crush was more physical and literal than emotional. Long before reaching the age of a realisation in an emotional context, I was physically “crushed“ by A circumstance that could have been quite fatal.

I was about nine or 10 years old at the time. My Dad was a farmer, keeping sheep and growing wheat.

Harvesting wheat had been all about three-bushel bags and loading them onto the truck using a bag lifter.

Then my father upgraded from bagged to bulk wheat for delivery to the cooperative Depot. Rather than bags, the wheat was poured from the harvester into the hopper of an augur which then lifted the grain into the bulk wheat bin on the truck tray.

This all saved a lot of work. When the bin was full, Dad drove to the weed bin and unloaded the weeds through a trap door onto the receiving area.

Manually, someone had to make sure the load was evenly distributed in the bin and then rake out the residue at the siding into the bulk handling collection area.

I loved to smooth the wheat in the bin and loved riding on the top of the load as Dad moved from one harvesting area to another.

On this particular occasion, I was perched in the bulk bin on the back of the truck looking backwards over the auger which my father was towing to the next place. I did not see where he was driving because of my looking backwards. Dad went under a tree overhanging the track. A rather low-slung tree branch cleared the roof of the truck and the top of the bin but did not clear my neck or head. The pressure of the tree branch lifted me vertically, Somehow dragged me from the bin bouncing me down on my head onto the very back of the truck tray with the motion tipping me into the hopper of the augur being towed by the truck.

(I worked all this out later for at the time I was unconscious the result of me being bounced on my head knocked me out. The “crush“ was all about the reaction to undue pressure on my neck and upper back. To this day I have spinal curvature – admittedly not extreme but there. That’s made me very round-shouldered and I do have a bend in my spine.

There were other crushes later. Indeed, I have been married to my wife for nearly 55 years.

However, my first crush was the one I have described.