Dave, sorry about messing up you name, and that combine reminds me of a guy in my old farm district neighborhood who "inherited" a 1946 vintage John Deere A that was in the barn when he bought what was left of a small farm in an estate sale.
He looked all over it trying to find out where the starter was until he asked my Dad, knowing he was an old farmer, to drop by and show him how to start it. After setting the throttle and spark advance and making sure it had gas and spark, my Dad grabbed that big ol' flywheel on the left side, bounced it against the back of the compression stroke to give it a little boost and then spun it quickly in the opposite direction to get it to the spark part of the forward stroke. It took a couple more tries until it finally caught and those two old horizontal cylinders started chugging, sending up a small cloud of blue smoke til the cylinders cleared.
The guy stood there in semi-fear for a few seconds with that big flywheel spinning on the side, but then got into it and wanted to try starting it himself. After a little practice, he got pretty good at it, later restored and painted the tractor and has been running it in parades, hauling a wagon load of hay bales, happy little kids and parents for years, now. I suppose that OSHA would have a conniption, or something, just looking at a totally exposed, 100 lb. spinning flywheel in the open while the thing is running.
Times have certainly changed. Back when your Mom and Billy Jean were working the combine, everyone just knew enough not to get close to spinning wheels and moving belts. Somehow, a lot of us have lost that common sense. 
I can't see me doing that with the snowblower, though, unless I was blowing confetti or something..... And at a slow pace, too.
