everyone should have a vessel like this
Published on November 10, 2004 By BULLJAUDON In Blogging
I have a truck. Acctually I have more than one. I have three. I live in the south, in the country, on a small 15 acre piece of land.

One of these trucks, is "the" truck though. Stay with me here.



My Pop bought this truck new in 1967. I have an old Polaroid tear off picture of me when I was 8 in the bed of this truck the day he brought it home from the dealership. It was our escape vehicle. I Iook at it and can remember all the camping, fishing, hunting, and road trips I used to take with my Pop in it growing up.



I learned to drive in this truck. When I got my license, he "loaned" it to me to drive to school and everywhere else I wanted to go.

Ummm, High School, the truck, freedom, you get the idea.



I got older, got a job, bought my own truck, but it wasn't the same. He kept the truck. I have bought several trucks, but they weren't the same. I took my wife of 20 years out on our first date in this truck. Mine must have been in the shop or something. We still remember that date today.



When my first son was born I went and bought a new truck. I was going to keep it and give it to him. That didn't work out though.



For one reason or the other, the truck quit running, it sat behind one of our barns for 10 years. I would ride by it, feeding the animals or doing chores and look at it shamefully like an abandoned friend or more like an abandoned family member. I'm a self taught mechanic and have built several cars and trucks in my life, but "the truck" never seemed to get in line to get rebuilt.



My fathers health is getting bad, my sons are now 16 and 11, and the shame of letting it sit and the thought of seeing my Pop drive it one more time before he goes worked on me. Last year I drug it out of the weeds, completely took it apart, and refurbished it.



I can't tell you how much it meant to my family, my Pop, my kids, my wife, especially my wife after all the time and money I put into it, the first time I drove it out the driveway to the road. It was like being in a time capsul. All the sounds, the smells, the vibrations, caused all the memories to come rushing back. Then I realized that my sons will have memories from this truck as well.



Everyone needs something like this. A vessel of somekind that takes them away from all the day to day pressures, back to the simple times, when we were young with no worries and the world by the tale.



I hope all of you out there in JU have a vessel that does this for you. Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Liberals, Blacks, Whites, what evers.



I'm going to drive "MY TRUCK".



BULLJAUDON

Comments
on Nov 10, 2004
Mine was a '62 GMC two wheel drive pickup, red turned pink from the oxidization. We moved to West Virginia in 1980, when I was still in elementary school. Our neighbor, Mr. Bender, a WWII vet, used to drive up and make sure we were still alive. You could hear the bed on his truck rattle a mile away, bouncing up and down through the potholes and the ruts. He died in 1992 and I wish I had bought his old truck. He was the closest thing to a grandfather I had and he meant a lot to my family and me. It would have been a legacy to what he had been and where he had gone. My dad gave me a truck before I graduated, a 1980 Chevy K-10, inline six. He sold it to Mr. Bender's son. I haven't seen them in a good while, hope it's still running. I still prefer the '62.
on Nov 10, 2004
My first truck was a 1970 Chevy/GMC hybird. It was a great truck, but I had to replace the drum brakes with disc brakes. Then we got some nice rims for it and painted it Porsche red.
on Nov 10, 2004
Thanks for your comments folks. It's good to know that other people have ties to "objects" like these that bring back so many memories.

It's funny how I can get in my truck, crank it , drive away, and forget all the BS associated with being an adult.

Keep commenting, I want to hear your stories too.

It's common ground.