Every scar tells a story
He turned off the highway onto the big, wide, sandy road, looked over at me and said, "you can drive." I was 14 years old and more than ready. We changed places, and he talked me through the steps of operating a stick shift.
The truck was an old '57 Chevy, with a tall shifter that came up from the floorboard with a big black knob on the end. There was a push button starter in the floor, to the left of the clutch, brake and gas pedal.
I was small for my age and had to sit up straight on the edge of the seat to see over the dashboard. But I was in the driver's seat! That was nearly 50 years ago, but sometimes it seems like only yesterday.
Daddy talked me through that first attempt at driving. There was no traffic to worry about on the old dirt road, and I could concentrate on the process of using a clutch and gear shifter. I stopped before we reached the end of the dirt road at the next highway, and we changed seats again. There would be more learning sessions along that dirt road, in the old Chevy pickup.
That old truck took us on many more trips together - mostly hunting and fishing. A couple of years later we found a newer model that had a shifter on the steering column and a key to start the engine. Of course there was no air conditioning or seatbelts.
Mama always had a car, and I drove the car when I started dating girls, but a truck was my favorite way to travel. I've bought a couple of cars over the years, but I've always been a truck man. You can haul off trash, slide a boat or a dog box into the back of a truck. A truck can haul things, go places and do things that a car can only dream about.
I've owned and driven Dodges, Fords and Chevrolets. I had a pearl white step-side Ford that I put more than 300,000 miles on. I drove that truck on hunting trips to Texas and Arkansas. Got stuck in a snow storm in Alabama and watched vehicles with four-wheel drive plow right on down the road past us. I resolved right then and there that my next truck would be a four-wheel drive. I eventually handed the Ford down to my son Clayton, when I bought a new Chevy Silverado Z71.
Nowadays, I call the Silverado "Old Blue." Of course, it is a four-wheel drive. I haven't driven it in the snow, but it has gotten me out of some mighty wet spots. The truck has more than 372,000 miles on it, and it drives like brand new, even though it looks a little rough.
Old Blue has some scrapes and scratches, some dents and dings, and every scar on that truck has a story behind it.
When the truck was new, I knocked the driver's side rearview mirror off, trying to get a better look at an eagle. I backed up looking at the big bird and didn't see a stout sapling that caught my mirror. It broke the mount and left the mirror dangling from the wires that allowed for adjustments. I duct taped it back in place, and it's still there.
I jackknifed a trailer trying to turn around in a tight spot and bent the rear panel on the passenger side. It popped the back taillight out - hanging by the wires. And, you guessed it - I duct taped it back in place. My truck is dark blue and I've used black duct tape, so it's hardly noticeable. I pulled most of the dent back out, and it doesn't look so bad.
The rear bumper got a pretty bad bend in it when I accidentally backed into a shallow ditch on a new hunting lease. There was a big pine stump on the far edge of the ditch, and the truck rolled back into the unseen stump. That happened several years ago, and believe it or not, the bumper has just about straightened itself back out. Metal memory?
Under the front bumper is a black plastic skirt of some type. I pulled one side loose backing up on a narrow woods road. The skirt hooked on an unseen vine and tore loose from the bottom of the bumper. I pushed it back up and eventually ran a screw through the skirt, but it still hangs a little low on that side.
There are some small scrapes and scratches along both sides of Old Blue from the brush and briars encountered along hunt club roads. I've had the truck for 12 years now, and it may be getting time for a new one. But right now, I wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China. Every time I look at that truck I think of all the stories.
Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.