This photo represents the worst mistake I made in my life. Trusting the wrong people. That looks like a tractor, but it was really my university education. And it was given away to strangers. I'll record the quick version, as this tale has many facets that are posted over the next 50-odd years. My parents had promised me a university education if I worked on that "farm", which as you see is a muck field so bad that the tractor got stuck. it required a second tractor to pull it out. I never wanted anything to do with such insanity. One day a bit earlier, father (shown here on the tractor) left some papers on the table and I discovered he had spent $15,800 on that tractor. Very close to the (as it turned out but I did not know at the time) to the $15,600 my education would have cost.
My thinking was wrong. I figured if he had money to throw away on tractors, he would have no problem meeting the commitment for my schooling. What a stupid, naive shmuck I was. Two years later he sold that place--and threw in the tractor as part of the deal. The buyer actually refused, knowing it was wrong. But my father gave it away, and I dropped out of university to go work in a lumber mill.
I never saw a penny out of that farm, instead wasted those few precious teen years picking roots in that muck. But, it is known everybody has a sob story, so move along. Nothing to see here.
