Every time I look at my toy tractor collection, heavy on 1950 and 1960 models, or peruse my literature collection, I wonder what it would have been like to have been born 20 years sooner. What did I miss by being born in the ’50s instead of the ’30s?

Yes, it’s daydreaming, but it can be enlightening, too. Here are 10 reasons I wish I had been born 20 years earlier.

1. The excitement of threshing rings! When I was 12 or so, people would have still threshed wheat in threshing rings. I would have been too young to pitch. Maybe I would have fetched water for the men. I would have loved threshing dinners. All the pictures you see make it look so inviting.

2. A different first tractor. The tractor I learned to drive on was a D-17, Series IV. If I had been born 20 years earlier, it would have likely been a Massey-Harris 44. It would have been cool to sit up tall and drive on a Massey 44, an Oliver 70, a John Deere B or even an Allis-Chalmers WD45.

3. A real “milk man.” Whenever I see an old milk can, I wonder what it would have been like to milk cows in stanchions. I loved milking cows, and in those days farmers, were “up close and personal” with old Bossy.

4. Class of ’51. I could have graduated from the old Whiteland High School. The building could be too hot or too cold, but everybody knew everybody — that had to be fun.

5. First new car! Imagine the thrill of buying a new ’53 Chevrolet! I remember riding in my grandfather’s green ’53 coupe. It was far from new. He didn’t start driving until he was 70.

6. Better odds for sports teams. Everything was basketball back then. With fewer kids in school, I could have made the team. Well, probably not, but I would have loved sitting in the bleachers in a crackerbox gym, cheering! If you’ve seen “Hoosiers” — oh, to have been in high school in the ’50s!

7. Pulleys and belts. I know what the pulley on the side of a Co-op E3 is for. Dad still used belts to power the silage blower, but soon most went to PTO models. The smell of fresh silage and the challenge of positioning the tractor just right to run the belt — that’s when farmers were farmers!

8. Purdue Class of ’55. Names like Earl Butz and Dean Pfendler would mean more to me than they do today. I could have learned more about agriculture from those guys.

9. Cows, sows and plows. I would have been in my hayday in FFA in the late ’40s and early ’50s. Maybe I would have learned more about working on small engines in ag class.

10. Ice cream socials. Farm families getting together to make hand-cranked homemade ice cream was a big deal. Sitting under the shade tree after a hard day’s work drinking lemonade and fixing to eat ice cream sounds relaxing.

This is the first in a three-part series. Watch for the next installment in Hoosier Perspectives on Oct. 12.