In 1957 ned was a young fellow in pre-suburbia. Walking a few dozen blocks he could trap muskrats in the swamp and creek, arrow pheasants, and kill groundhogs in the crop fields with his 22. A couple of miles the other way he could explore the largest collection of earthmoving and surplus heavy duty equipment a 12 year old ever saw. The fellows at the equipment yard let ned ride on the surplus 1943 D8 cats and others they rebuilt into useful construction equipment. Showed him how to operate the cable control systems on some, and the hydraulics too. It was hard him being small but he learned. He was a mascot for that bunch of old tank mechanics and ex-seabees. Now the yard had an absolute herd of three or four dozen cats heartily disliked by all the mechanics and helpers. And You know why too. But ned took to a big TOMCAT and soon trained him to jump up on the D8 cat seat for snacks. Pretty soon that old Tom could swipe at the blade lever and when a small perch was wired to it he could pull hard enough make it drop 18 inches in 1 millisecond. Tom liked that game. Now this was not an ordinary blade . It was like a modern backhoe bucket only 10 feet wide and it faced outwards of course. The bottom would set flat to the ground, although it would tilt, and it was more than three feet deep and three feet high. Now that D8 cat was diesel, 1200 rpms and it took 4 gear shifts to see it even begin to move forward. No telling what it would lift or push. Rumor had it that the machine had been to Oz for the war and had to be driven from Alice Springs to Darwin because it collapsed a flatbed train car it was driven onto for transport in late '43. But it was home again. Now ned had lots of quiet chats with those tough vets and they agreed to let him train all the yard cats to come to that dozer at quitting time and eat their supper under the raised blade of the inert machine, and like a two-ring circus Tom was there in training too. One friday night after the cats being without vittles for a day every mechanic, helper, and laborer got paid and hung around the pay shack as ned drove the old Cat up, raised the blade and wired up the little perch, turned the machine off, jumped down strowing lunch scraps under the bucket, and then joined the crowd. That herd of cats was heading for the dozer and starting to fight and growl for the scraps. It was then that Tom initiated the Great Cat Extinction of 1957 with a perch snack. The D8 diesel got them all. And yes, the overhaul yard never had more than one live cat after that. N.S. Sherlock

Ka-Whump! I wonder how many crat angels can fit under a D8's tread?

Dan

POTYHC

www.Idle.Ruminations

quote:

Originally posted by DigitalDan:
Ka-Whump! I wonder how many crat angels can fit under a D8's tread?

Dan

POTYHC

www.Idle.Ruminations

Answer: NONE, cause they are demons.

Hog Killer