Posted by Chuck on Wednesday, January 22, 2003 at 11:54AM :
In Reply to: Old truck ramblings posted by Todd Wilson on Tuesday, January 21, 2003 at 11:53PM :
I got my first old truck back in the early 70s - a ‘64 International 3/4 ton stake that had been used as a delivery truck by a local hardware. Bought it for $300 from a neighbor who had built a shed-roof half-cap on the back. I lived in a garden apartment building that somebody on our block named “The Disco”, probably because the guys on the floor below me always had the Rolling Stones cranked up hard enough to kill goldfish, and certainly because our building was at the bottom of the “East Hill” section of town. The Hill was where the rich folks lived.
My truck was standout ugly -- even in the used-car parking lot where it sat, surrounded by rusted Datsuns. Some people took unfavorable notice of it. But up on The Hill it got malevolent stares. You’d think that every time I drove by, the value of somebody’s house was dropping 500 bucks.
Then I started getting the “furniture phone calls.” First from people in my building: “Hey, Chuck, there’s this sofa my sister wants to buy and I was wondering...” It got to the point where ‘Ol Red and I were moving somebody somewhere every other weekend. I was paid in beer, gas, cigars -- even got a few dates! Then my rich East Hill neighbors started calling. These were people who could afford to hire United Van Lines to move a frying pan but they called me. The ones who started the conversation with “How would you like to earn a few bucks...” got the brush off, the ones who acted like regular folks got help.
The point of this long story: I was a young single guy who tended to be shy. Starting conversations wasn’t easy anytime -- forget about good-looking girls -- I tended to freeze up and come across like an idiot. ‘Ol Red changed all that. I went from a loner who couldn’t meet people to a Goodguy Neighbor who got invited over for home cooked meals.
Now, I know everybody on this forum has great old truck stories, but how many of you had an old beater that served as an “ice breaker”?
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