I have driven this '51 binder coast-to-coast and back twice without maps, plans or spare parts. The ignition was jerry-rigged outside of Louisville and the brake system was a set of dumbells I'd toss out the door under the wheels between Eastern Nebraska and Denver. A highway patrolman pulled me over just before I crossed the Mississippi near Moline and offered to buy her. Another pulled me over near Vail and threatened to arrest me for driving her. She's got a three-on-the-tree transmission and a positive-ground 6 volt electric system and plenty of room to turn a wrench under the hood. She lives here now where she provides a café for squirrels when my grapes are ripe.
ENGINEERING, n. Unrefined ore awaiting the tinkerer's torch.
18 comments:
It reminds of the time when you shared stories of your own life on Saturdays. I even remember one including this truck, you and two friends, and two cops you called George and Lennie.
Engineering, building castle in the sand.
Good memory, Ariel, but that was a red van.
A man can only talk about himself so much before he turns to metaphor. That story is here.
Thanks!
Doug, thank you a lot! I really enjoyed this post, soooo much.
Some day when I am in the story mood I will blog about the day I sold my last truck (pickup).
In Texas, you've just hit the downward slope when you don't have a truck anymore!
Anyway, I love it!
..
There might also be another post or two about the trucks in my life (lives). :-)
..
My pleasure, Jim.
"The cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh, and stopped there. A large stone was there; so they split up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord." 1st Samuel 6:14
I love when Jerry Jeff Walker tells pickup stories from Texas.
That picture, and the mention of pickups in Texas, gave me a Yankee earworm. Here ya go:
"I don't know about your farm in Maine, Mister, but I have a ranch in Texas that is so large, it takes me five days to drive around my entire spread."
"I have a cah just like that muself."
- Texas vs. Maine, Bert and I (Marshall Dodge, Bob Bryan)
We had my grandpa's old truck for quite awhile.
A friend of ours wanted it, so we gave it to him.
I loved that truck because I love remembering how funny my grandpa was when he drove it. He was an awful driver. His passengers got whiplash.
Thanks SO much for the Spanish info.
I copied it and saved it to my desktop, so I can reference it as needed.
Entiendo.
Puedo hablar un poquito español, pero no puedo entenderlo.
Necesito practicar más.
Amoeba, I heard that joke by a native American from an island in Puget sound about a Navajo.
JD, estoy muy contento te ayudar. Preguntiste quando quieres.
It is a beautiful magic bus.
Rooby Roo!
She's a beaut!
So, at last we meet Doug's true love.
Quilly: guessing she ranks right up there with a good steak and/or a quiet evening at home with his dogs. ; )
Grand post about a Grand Old Dame, Doug.
Thanks, G, Quilly and Neva. I like 'em with a few teeth missing.
doug - is this for real? Man oh man. Let me know if you put her up for sale.
i've never seen so much soul
packed into one little vehicle...
she is a beauty.
I'm impressed.
Mule, I hate to tell you but when I've lost my job and given up my home and sold all I have of value and the only way to eat is to sell that truck, I'll crawl up in the cab and wait for night to fall.
Thanks, JJ. She's a gem and practically road-legal in Arkansas.
Thanks, Cooper.
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