Driving Dad's Old Truck

I don't know what the year was for this truck, perhaps if Ron was still alive he would have known. I just know that it was old.

It badly needed repairs. The floor gear shift every so often would stick and to get it out of gear one had to open the hood and manually move the linkage to take it out of gear. Now you had to stand at a certain place while you are performing this. You did not want to be standing any place else, it would have been disastrous. Remember you are moving the linkage around on the gear shift, and if you had forgotten to shut the truck off before you did this, you just might not know where you're going to end up.      

The truck didn't look quit like this one, it was a dull red and battered up, but it was within this year range. Not only was the gear shift constantly sticking at the most unopportunistic time, the windshield wipers never worked. Not as long as I drove that red truck.

My Mom would send me to get the mail. The nearest post office to our home was in Wood Bay, a small hamlet with a small store, post office and an elevator. That's it, oh yes, there was the post masters house and I also think there was a house for the guy at the elevator also. Somewhere in all these books I have there is some information about Wood Bay. 

I would start by checking to see if the gear shift would decide to work that day. If it did I was in luck. After checking that out, I would get into the cab, depress the clutch and turn the key. That is after making sure the truck is not in gear. It's not unusual for the truck to start running away because one forgot to check. Okay, now you turn the key on and press the starter with your foot. Yup it's on the floor, a metal thing a m-jig that sits about (1 ½) one inches tall and about one inch wide. There was also a similar metal thing on the floor to change the lights from bright to dim; you had to make sure you didn’t get them mixed up.

The engine is turning over, it’s got an old battery also; and after a few hisses and burps and farts, it starts. Believe it or not, it did run smoothly. Dad may not have kept the body of that old truck fixed but he did believe in trying to keep the motors running half decently.  Okay, ready to go, Push the clutch to the floor, and then put the truck in gear, slowly let the clutch out. I said slowly, because if you didn’t do that the truck would stall. Cranky old thing. Once you have the truck starting off smoothly, completely let the clutch out slowly until it is all the way out. Now your in business you might think. NO, you’re not finished yet. Remember this is a floor stick shift and it is not really at all like the newer vehicles that have a floor stick shift. I have driven both.

There is a first second, third and drive and when you start out it’s in first. Now is when that old truck is going to behave or not. The question is can I get it out of first or will it stick again. Okay, so it behaved this time, you press the gas petal and let the truck reach a certain speed before shifting it into second, the same with third and when you finally put it into the driving gear, make sure it’s not the reverse one you put it into.  Third gear was found up and to the left, second gear was to the up and to the right, drive was found lower and to the right and reverse was lower and to the left. And then to top things off, every so often the gears would decide they wouldn’t work and you had to be careful when you put it back into gear. Maybe if you’re lucky and with only a small bit of grinding and clashing of gears you can get the gear shift going again the way it should be going.

If everything goes well and you start down that earthen track to the post office, you pray that it won’t stall and that it wouldn’t rain. An old wiper was kept on the dash in case that happened as you would then have to manually reach around outside and use the wiper to take a swish at the windshield.  Nine times out of ten, I would make it safely there and back.

After I married and moved away from home, we borrowed the truck to haul water, as there was no running water at that time in Elgin. By this time the tires were also going for broke and we didn’t have the money to buy any for that dear old truck. Just think about the weight of a 500 gallon water tank in the back of that truck alone would be lowering the tires, but add to that a full tank of water and you had fun, especially when one tire decides to go completely flat. Ron started to invest in some good used tires and that helped quite a bit in getting water. Eventually Dad wanted his truck back, and we struggled on with paying someone to haul water for us. We didn’t drink that water; we hauled pails of water from the church that was just across the street.

To get back to this truck of my Father’s truck. He drove it for this and that around the farm for quite a few years after that. It just wouldn’t quit it was a tough old truck. To top it off, he eventually sold and made some money on it. How can you beat that.

Often at times, I sit and think about that truck, how it drove, where I went in it, (Mom and Dad wouldn’t let us drive the car.) to get the mail, maybe some groceries, and just about every Saturday, I would head out in the truck to do some housecleaning for someone.  That little old red half ton does have many memories attached to it.