Jon;
I was attending an antique tractor show once & a young man was hand-cranking his tractor, a Farmall as I recall. An older gentleman saw him & rushed over & said Son, let me show you how to crank a tractor before you break your wrist. He then proceeded to show him to "Never" spin the crank all the way around as if you were winding it up, but to only pull upward.

He further added that many tell you to never put your thumb across the crank, said if you only pulled up it didn't matter where your thumb was. Where most people got hurt was if the engine back-fired crank would come around & hit the back of your wrist, breaking it. If you only pulled up the crank would yank out of your hand & the hand would continue upward & not get hit.

The old 2-cylinder John Deeres were the safe ones to crank as you rolled the flywheel. Not much way to get hurt cranking one of them, unless you left it in gear & the clutch engaged, then you might get run over by the back wheel.

I recall my Mother mentioning when she was growing up her family had gas lighting in the house. She said they had A Carbide Vat which set out behind their house & the gas was piped inside. I recall as a youth seeing the lights still on the walls but they weren't using it then, only had the old fashioned Kerosene Lamps with a flat wick.

I lived in 7 or 8 houses before I was 9 yrs old, a couple of them had electricity, but most didn't. From age 9 to about 12 we didn't have it again, got "Wired" around 1950 when I was 12. At that place, there was a drilled well (4") & I had to draw all the water, but fortunately was only around 20 feet deep, with just a Touch of Sulfur in it.

Miller/TN
I Didn't Say Everything I Said, Yogi Berra