There weren't a lot of them, because they were utilitarian, used until they were no longer useable, but there were always pick-up trucks around when I was growing up. There was an early 1950's Ford, traded in 1965 on a red Ford, the early one I have no real memory of. A yellow Chevy, bought used from a utility company. And the Blue Dodge. It was the last one. My father bought around the time my grandfather retired, my grandfather kept the red Ford, it was around for me to learn to drive in.
The Blue Dodge was fun. It had a massive V-8, it might have been a 440. My father bought it used, no one wanted it because it had a massive engine and got lousy gas mileage. He only drove it a few thousand miles a year and didn't care about the miles per gallon. It was a handful on the gravel and unpaved roads, if you put your foot down you needed to be prepared to correct for the slide. About a mile and a half north of the farm, I would turn right onto a paved road, put my foot to the floor and and rocket from a standstill to 60 miles per hour before the rear wheels quit spinning. For decades I kept that my guilty little secret. Late in my father's life someone mentioned the blue Dodge and I said how fun it was to drive. In his best deadpan, my father looked at me and said "I know, I could hear you on a clear afternoon, from a mile and half away - it was fun wasn't it?"
Oh, the things parents know when you don’t think they do. I was never even IN a pick-up until I was 28 and visited South Dakota for the first time. Two years later, I actually drove it. So exciting (although I’m sure it didn’t have a V-8).
ReplyDeleteI have never owned one, all of my siblings have, one still does.
DeleteNice that your dad let you have that secret for so long!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what else he knew
Delete😊😘
ReplyDeletesweet memories
DeleteThis brought back all sorts of memories. My dad had a blue Dodge truck that looked very much like this one. And, he also knew all my little secrets. I never could figure out how he knew so many but he did.
ReplyDeleteParental intuition, spies, He knew what my sister was up to before she did
DeleteHahahahahaha, BUST-ed!
ReplyDeleteBut not grounded
DeleteOne of my very favorite vehicles of all time was my uncle's Jeep Scout. It was a small, bare bones utility vehicle where you felt every bump in the road (and he drove it on a lot of dirt and gravel roads) but I loved that vehicle. I always wanted a Jeep, never got one, but that love of Jeeps must have been in my genes because my son has had a few since college and now he's in his 30s.
ReplyDeleteThose were fun, I sometimes think about a jeep type thing as my next car, then settle for comfort
DeleteMy father had a truck of some kind back when I was a kid. I don't remember the make, model or color. I do remember being put in the truck bed with my five sisters and waving to motorists on the freeway as we headed toward the beach. Such fun!
ReplyDeleteI also rode in the back of an open pickup truck and lived to tell the tales. Around the farm, we would put the tailgate down, sit on the edge with our feet dangling while being slowly driven around the corner and back to the water. Do that today and they would arrest the driver for child endangerment.
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