Friday, August 28, 2009

ode to my truck



I tell people often how much I love my truck, and I realized I have never given it its due respect here. This is a 1989 Toyota pickup. The same year I graduated from high school. We bought it with cash and it runs like a champ. Sure, it's ugly, rattly, and the smallest, most beat up truck in the F.S.F.S. parking lot, but I love it. In fact, everyone who sees it loves it. It carries everything I need it to carry and has never let us down. Once, on our way home one night, the belt broke and my husband had to rig a replacement. It was after dark and we were too far from anything to get a part or a ride. This truck (along with my husband's ingenuity) got us another 20 miles home on a belt made of ROPE. Seriously. Check it:



Before its incarnation as a farm truck, it was a commuter for a Dockers-and-loafers suburbanite. But I like to imagine this truck in its fresh-faced youth. I'm fairly certain that when it was new and shiny and pin-stripey, there was an 18-year-old boy with acid washed jeans and a mullet, blaring this out of the crappy speakers. You know I'm right.

8 comments:

  1. Hi :) Love your blog. Just came over from the comments section of CAF. Great truck! I look forward to checking out the rest of your posts.

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  2. I, too, found you via CAF. I like the Texas angle on your blog--I spent 20 years in Texas (and for all extents and purposes it's the family "home"), and can certainly appreciate how difficult it is to eke out a farm in that unrelenting heat.

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  3. Love your "ode to my truck" - a must read for my ever-luvin'-truck hubby. He just can't part with his trucks.

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  4. I love those little old toyota pickups. When I get my bit of land that's what I'll be looking for when I go to buy a farm truck.

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  5. That's PERFECT for Texas! A small import in the land of everything's big and the majority of the population suffer from truck envy. :)

    Oh, I live in NO CAL and work for a company outside of Houston and have had to deal with the whole Texan thing for about 10 years now.

    I'd offer a Sierra Club window sticker but I know the lil' guy could suffer dire consequenses.

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  6. finsandfeathers - actually, I'm amazed at what I can get away with here, as long as I walk the walk and know what I'm talking about. I'm a walking contradiction here. Beater truck, cowboy boots, Mother Earth News reusable shopping bags. That's me. :D

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  7. Wow... and you don't even live in Austin.

    I'm a MEN fan from the 70's. The term, "sustainability," hadn't been invented and as my boys say, "Dad's so old he lived through the first energy crisis..." It's above refreshing to see things changing.

    About reusable shopping bags, our cars are both stocked and I'm putting CAF's on my Christmas list. I'm interesed is seeing how many conversations can be struck up at a Farmer's Market with a CAF logo and Maude on the bag.

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