potato picking in the late 40's

we had a farm, (40 acres) about one mile out of lake linden on the bootjack road. it was close to judnich home place. just before judnich is a gravel road going north. we were two forties up that road. we purchased from parsiala who lived another 40 north. the road dead ended so the two of us were the only ones on the road. we raised a few acres of spuds and made hay on the 40. it had an old farm house but no barn because the barn burned shortly before we purchased. rumors had it that greek lightning took care of the barn. one day when we were harvesting spuds leo or bob drove the jukkari (truck made into a tractor) and dad maned the hiller to open a couple of rows of spuds which we promptly picked. but we had time to pick more if more rows were opened but leo or bob had to leave so we were left without a driver. dad tried me but my feet wouldn't reach the clutch or gas petal so dad tried myja. we knew that would be a disaster but dad tried anyway. dad gave myja a crash course on driving and so this is what happen in actual practice. she left out the clutch with a jerk and jammed the gas to the floor and proceeded to go diagonally across the field uprooting spuds from here and there until finally dad raced ahead and took control. it didn't work too well but it was a good try. we got to go home early for lack of a driver.