As a 14-Year Old, Ralph Handled Large Construction Equipment? What Could Go Wrong?

Fabric featuring Caterpillar equipment.
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For several summers, starting at age 14, Ralph would join his father, Virgil Mitchell (1908-1954) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who had a business as a land-leveling contractor. One thing Ralph did was to help prep the tractors, bulldozers, and other equipment before the shift started each day and he would help park the equipment at the end of the day. Here, Ralph tells about one particularly memorable day that could have ended in disaster!

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It was 1948. I would go back [for the summer to Albuquerque] and work, and [my father] would let me drive the tractor. I had a grease job. In other words, I would go out before the shift started, and I’d head out and take the pump and grease all the trucks and tractors and everything. And I got to park them. 

And funny thing. He had about 4 or 5 pieces of equipment. And we had a bulldozer that was a little hard to start. It was a Caterpillar [brand]. I know about that much about it [gesturing a small amount with his fingers]. But it had a little starter motor. You’d start the starter motor, which was gasoline. And you’d start it up. And when you got it running, running smooth, you’d put the clutch in and it would start the big Caterpillar motor, the big engine. 

It sounds stupid now, but it made sense to me at 12 or 14 years old. They told me, when you get this one gassed up - and they sat there and let it idle, so we didn’t have to start it - so they said when you get this one all greased up and fueled and everything, why don’t you back it up on that hill, so in the morning we’ll just release it, let it come down, start it without having to try to start that little engine. And I said, Ok. So I got all finished with all the equipment, got on that thing and backed it up the hill and I kept going back and back and back. The hill got steeper. I said how far up? And they said, well, go as far as you can. So I got it up where almost the tracks were digging into the thing. And I put on the brakes and I’m holding it there, and I’m thinking, Ok, now I don’t want this thing to come rolling down at night, so I reached up and pulled the lever and put the dozer blade down, so the dozer blade was stuck in the dirt. It wasn’t going anywhere! In the morning they couldn’t let it go down and start it that way! They had to start that little engine with that thing on a hill like that!

KF: Did they have to dig it out?

RM: No, they got the little engine started, and started the big Caterpillar engine, and they pulled the blade up and it rolled right out. Boy they yelled at me that day and teased me for two or three days!

I was 14. It was 1948. Well, ‘48, ‘49, and ‘50. I would go back and work with him. They were building a dam, an earthen dam in Las Vegas, New Mexico, way up in the north part of the state. It was just a dirt levy, so they would go pull dirt out of the valley and put it on this levy. So he let me work on some of that. 

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From an interview with Ralph on 13 January 2017.