We had a 4 wheel motor bike (ATV) for the field trial
I worked on. I loved scooting around on it, once I got used to it. One day,
just before harvest we were busy and our boss came to 'help' - L often said it
was like bringing and extra person and being 3 men down.
I was doing quad cuts on our crop paddocks, which
meant cutting a set area of the crop right down at ground level, then taking
that back to work to weigh, then thresh and measure the amount of seed. So I cut them and then put them in a labelled bag.
My boss had the ATV and came to give me a lift
back to the shed for lunch. This was before OH&S was huge. So, I had my
crop cuts tucked under my arm and I had to stand on the peg of the ATV, and
hang onto the spray tank at the back. My boss rode a motorbike to work, and he
was the ultimate absent-minded professor as well as being not terribly practical or useful, so I wasn't feeling real safe, but I
had no success arguing I could walk back. So I was hanging on...for dear life!
My boss went whipping up along the track, and then went
to change gears, which you just did - this bike had no clutch...but the boss's own
bike had a clutch, so he grabbed what he thought was the clutch, except it was
the brake. So the bike came to a screaming halt but not me, I went flying
off...
And I hear the boss yelling, 'Don't drop the cuts, don't
drop the cuts.'
Yep. He booted me off the bike, but gave not a thought
to my safety.
Sprawled across the ground, I was trying to get my
breath, and the boss came over all concerned. 'Oh, thank goodness,' he says, 'you
hung onto them'. And I had. The crop cuts were fine. Me, well, no damage, but I
don't think my boss would have noticed if I'd been hurt!
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