Back in the Day… We Had Hayrides

Back in the day, people went on hayrides.

This was an activity primarily for those of us who lived in rural areas or small towns. It wasn’t an activity too many city kids experienced while growing up. Could you imagine a farm tractor pulling a wagon full of hay and a dozen screaming kids through Times Square or along Chicago’s Michigan Avenue?

What Was a Hayride, You Ask?

For those of you who didn’t experience the fun of a traditional hayride, this was how it worked:

Back in the day, especially in small-town America, there were family farms everywhere. If you didn’t live on a farm, you almost certainly had an uncle, neighbor, or friend who did. They’d fire up the tractor, hook it to a wagon, and throw on a few bales of hay or straw for seating, and you were good to go.

The only thing left to do was pick up the phone – that thing connected to the wall with a long curly cord – and call all your friends.

Hay wagons were usually hooked up to a tractor like this:

We sometimes rode on wagons so full of hay or straw, we could snuggle in like this:

Of course, the hay or the stray didn’t always stay neatly tucked in each bale. After a hayride, you might find pieces of straw in your shoes, your hair, or even in your underwear. Those pesky little straws and hay bristles might be sticking in a few unmentionable places. All that jostling around on the wagon could get those tiny straws stuck in the most unusual places.

Then What Happened?

The hayride would usually take place on a Friday or Saturday night. Hayrides were always more fun after dark.

If you were a younger kid, it was always fun to throw off anything not attached to the wagon when the adults weren’t looking. If you were in a particularly mischievous mood and the wagon wasn’t going too fast, you might try to throw another kid off the wagon.

“Where’s Jimmy?”

“Oh, he jumped off when we passed Joe’s house.”

When you got older, kids would pair up to make out. Some would slide down between the bales where adults couldn’t see them.

Extra Special Hayrides

Sometimes we went on hayrides to a pumpkin patch, or we had what were called haunted hayrides. There were hayrides with bonfires after the ride, or Halloween parties. There were late-in-the-season rides and the adults would cut down a Christmas tree and tie it to the wagon for the ride home.

Other times, we’d ride through town on a Friday night. If you were lucky, you might ride through an enclosed bridge. Everyone would start screaming at the top of their lungs, just because they could. When it came to hayrides, the options were pretty much endless.

What Happened to Hayrides? (And Pretty Much Everything Else Fun)

As lawsuits began to pile up and parents became more protective (think of the helicopter), hayrides became less exciting. In all fairness, hayrides could be dangerous, but like so many other things, people might have gone a little overboard to make them safe.

They started making them so safe that they were boring. The tractor went so slow you could almost jump on and off the wagon without falling.

Next, some people decided a hayride would be safer with sides so high on the wagon that it was like riding in a dump truck. Riding in a wagon with the sides up so high that you couldn’t see anything while you were riding was not fun.

Finally, hayrides stopped traveling into town or even on actual roads. You’d take a few rounds around the farmer’s field, and that would pretty much be the extent of the ride.

Hayrides were one of many fun activities we enjoyed… back in the day.