The Shaping of His Career- Tom Mahony
A forty-eight year old man, born and raised on the farm lives currently in the quiet suburbs of Los Angeles. On his travels to his job he sometimes thinks of how his life would be different if farming hadn’t been a part of his life. Tom Mahony enjoyed his time on the farm and misses the old times when everything seemed to be fine and small farming was still a common career. Tom finds peace when arriving home from his daily commute and being able to lay down and read a book and spend time with his family. The farm life as he says is one that shaped his life to the way it is now.
I started working on the farm when I was twelve years old that’s when my folks moved out there. -- I began doing various chores-- I started out bailing hay and -- did fence work helped sort cattle out-- feeder cows that were shipped off from their mothers for feeding lots-- that’s dangerous work I got kicked a few times got sorta bruised up- that’s actually dangerous work.-- I have done - did a lot of field cultivating dealing with a lot of large tractors-- did some mechanical work some carpentry work- we a roofed some barns we put siding on barns so I was kinda a jack of all trades, working with livestock, grain and fields- hauling in harvest I pulled in these 400 bushel wagons of ground corn- hauled those to the elevator and opened those into an auger and pulled those in- I did a lot of things. Worked on a bean field we pulled the weeds so they wouldn’t clog the combine during the fall harvest-- ya I have done a lot of things.
A lot of times the ahh farmer would come by my house and pick me up or sometimes my parents would give me a ride. But I would say it was right in-between fifty-fifty. The farmers didn’t live too far away I would say the farthest I had driven was maybe six or seven miles. I had two or three that were within a mile and a half, two miles from my house. The ones that lived very close I just rode my bike over there.
There were times when I would watch one of my neighbors farms when he was on vacation. First thing id do was wake up and then drive in his truck and check on the cows. I would have to do a count. John Reign I remember one time he had fifty-five angus cows I had to make sure they were all there- that was a little tricky- sometimes you wondered if you counted that one a second time or not. So sometimes they were scattered sometimes they were all in one herd. After that I would get some mineral salts and check their water supply- they had a creek to drink from and sometimes if the creek was dry I had to bring them some water in this large water tank attached to a wagon and a tractor to fill their water tank up. Then in the afternoon if there were any chores he had me do like going in the farm and checking on the hogs. I had to feed the hogs morning and night there were about twenty-five of those feed them and water them as well. It just depended on what time of year it. In the summer there wasn’t a lot to do only jobs like to walk beans or bailing hay. Now bailing hay was a full day job we start about 10 in the morning when all the dew burned off the hay they had cut the previous day and we would bail thousand twelve hundred bails and put those on a hay rack and we would stack those haul those to the barn and haul those in the loft. Farming is hard work no one can deny that.
We always took a lunch pretty long lunch usually the farmer’s wife would cook for us or she would bring us sandwiches and drinks on the field. Ya it wasn’t a high pressure hurry hurry type of environment. It was a good environment and they treated us quite well.
When you try to separate calves from their mother and naturally upset you take any small a baby. Well they aren’t babies these things weighed about 350 pounds and they had just been weaned and they didn’t want to leave their mommy. it was pretty emotional --the mother cows that weighed about 1800 to 2000 pounds were balling it was complete chaos and it was dangerous- we were pushing him away and we were separating them with this large gate- and I had to get in-between once in a while and one would want to a straggler would get back - and they kick real fast these little calves when your behind them and your pushing them they kick real fast their back legs are just lightning fast and they a gotta I learned you gotta stretch your arms out or you get kicked in the shins and boy does it hurt. And a I got bruised up and I got kicked pretty hard a couple times but I learned to a stay back and extend my arms and lean into to push em up. It was kinda painful I had a few bruises for a few days.
fifty calves from fifty mothers it was quite a tough thing to do but we did pull it off. Bailing hay I worked with a crew about four or five as well. Two of us in the hay rack on the field and three of us in the barn where the elevator brought the bails up where they would fall on the loft and we would have to pick them up and stack them. On the field same thing 3 or 4 of us. On the tractor it was just myself with a plow or a disk or a cultivator.
As long as we worked we could talk. Ya you know as long as work was being done we talked quite frequently.
Like I said I did it [farming] from 1968 till I was twelve until high school 1974 basically summer time and hours after school in the harvest. What I liked about it was you were outdoors but farming is a very hazardous occupation a lot of times if you didn’t watch it you could get seriously injured you are around machinery that’s running all the time fortunately I never got seriously injured,, cut myself a few times here and there waked my self with a hammer on accident doing carpentry work. While I was doing farm work I was probably in the best shape of my life. Farming is a very physical work.
Until I was old enough to drive I saved my money for a car. Before then I saved some of it but when there where things I wanted you know.. Clothes or some toy I wanted to get I was 12 or 13 so some racecar set that u plug in electric transformers just odds and sods like that.
The pay was pretty good for that time I think in the early 70’s late 60’s I was getting around a 1.30 and hour. 73 74 I was getting 2 an hour. At that time that was pretty good money I remember getting gas for my car when I was 16 for a gallon of gas was 28 cents a gallon. And back then your money went a lot farther so ya my pay was good. Until I was old enough to drive I saved my money for a car. Before then I saved some of it but when there where things I wanted you know.. Clothes or some toy I wanted to get I was 12 or 13 so some racecar set that u plug in electric transformers just odds and sods like that.
Well I would say ya uhh in gardening in the backyard in mechanical skills I tuttle around with my car. I did a lot of wrenching during that time changed the oil and did some tune-ups on tractors changed the plugs did some tune-up on the ignition. -- Changed some tires u get a feeling for using wrenches. It may be more mechanically inclined and learning it at a young age just ahh is a good thing and tends for you to adapt to it more easy.
Ya when I lived back in Illinois. I applied my carpentry skills my mechanical skills even a little plumbing. My mom’s house back in Illinois certainly it did carry over to later circumstances I had to deal with in certain repairs. Yes it was a real advantage.
Interviewed by Alex Mahony