My first driving experiences were on tractors. The small tractor was easy to learn on, but my very first ride was when the tractor broke down. My uncle tied a rope to the tractor and to the hitch on his pickup truck. My job was to steer the tractor at the end of the rope and apply the brake when there was a stop. It did not go well at first as I constantly over-corrected from one side of the road to the other. After a while, I figured out how to stay in my lane.
I think now about how dangerous that all was. Later I learned to mow hay and cultivate crops and other tractor tasks. In many rural areas young people could legally drive farm equipment in their early teens. Some started even earlier around the farm. We were expected to be responsible for our actions and to use “common sense.” I sometimes wonder if the late development of responsibility in some young people is the result of not having opportunity to take on more adult tasks that were important to the family. There was nobody else who could have ridden the roped tractor in for the repair, so we did what was necessary. The cost of having the tractor towed would have made the repair cost prohibitive.
I have sympathy for parents and others who sometimes do risky behavior because they feel that they have no choice, but I am glad that there are now safety laws to protect children and young people from injury. More than once I survived situations which I now realize were actually dangerous even though I did not realize it at the time. I am much more careful now, but I do wonder if some things I take for granted might be more dangerous than I realize…