I was driving last night and listening to my favorite country station on the radio when the song "more back then right now" came on and I started chuckling where a verse came up, "when a work truck was just a work truck". It made me think back to my roots.
After about a year with the first company that took me on, I used to occasionally be sent to the court house or other places to either pick up or drop off plans and when they told me to takt the DORF, I was clueless until I found out it was the beat up old ford station wagon that should have been junked years before me. It got the name DORF when one of the field guys popped the ford F & D emblem letters on the hood and exchanged their places. Every time I took that wagon out I wondered if I would make it back alive.
When I move to another firm as a Jr. PC, I proved that I could handle a crew so they tossed me the keys to my crew truck, I one wheel drive Chevy Surburban work truck with three on the tree and an AM radio. That truck was so rusted out that they banned me from the car wash. Without Posi traction, I had to be careful where I parked the truck because it would get stuck on wet grass. Taking it off road was never an option.
They god tired of keeping that truck running and I arrived to work one day to be handed the keys to a brand new 1986 suburban, 4WD with auto locking hubs, AM/FM radio, AC, but, it was a work truck so the roof was not insolated. I was in love! The only draw back to that truck was in the winter, when the heater was turned on to heat the cab, condensation from the bare metal roof would rain down, drop by drop. I drove that truck and kept it in great condition from '86 until I went into the office in '93. When I left that company in '99, that truck was still in service and in good condition.
Looking back over that 10 year period and the "work trucks", field and office technology changed radically, going from optical transits to total stations and data collection. Those were some fun and formative years. To this day, it still puts a smile on my pace seeing new and updated equipment put into the hands of PCs, either in person or on group posts. I can remember the thrill "back them" of laying my hands on state of the art stuff.
I love it. 3 on the tree. Now those were fun to drive. Nice story. That’s the stuff that makes life fun.
Suburban housewives ruined the actual Suburbans (Chevy) as work trucks. We had them for years. No carpet, handcrank windows, tailgates (you could sit on to review plans or sharpen axes) and vinyl seats. You could practically hose them out when they got too muddy.
Andy
My first car was a 1955 ford, called the Goose. It had 3 on the tree and air conditioning came from holes in the floor board, you could watch the road pass by as you drove. Next car was a 3-speed 67 289 mustang, I wish I would have kept that one.
I recall the time period from1975 to 1980 too well. Every suburban dweller suddenly was buying oversized work vans to turn into their vehicle of choice for transporting children, friends of the children, eight soccer balls and $700 of other sports gear, the groceries for the week, 3.5 dogs (Chihuahua's don't count as full dogs) and an air tank. New cars had become so dang small in the energy crisis days that no one wanted to buy one.
Ahhh! The beloved Arab oil embargo of 1979 as the punishment for recognizing Israel as a State. Few know the story of what caused the energy crisis and how OPEC even came to exist.
I am one that owns a big truck it has no carpet vinyl seats and I can hose it off. I wanted regular roll down windows but hard to find. It is a 2021 model. It’s for work and the kids don’t mind. I did put some seat covers on the seats so they did not burn their legs in summer when I was in hayfield all day. The truck market has been messed up as well. Not that I don’t mind luxury but with all the gadgets the prices have soared. I hope this one out last me. No payments and just is nice to work out of.
I have been driving pickups since 1988 with a few 4WD SUVs mixed in. In 1998 I was forced to buy a small SUV for the purpose of available parking at the office as we grew. I went full out luxury and totaled it when I was doing 80 on an interstate to get to the office after being out sick for a week in December 2019, don't let anybody tell you that COVID was not here before 2020 because I had it bad and the pneumonia made my system crash and pass out cold in the fast lane. I ended up in ICU for 12 days, luckily, not from injuries, but from the effects of COVID.
When I got out of the hospital, I had a rental car for two weeks before I found a newer version of the Dodge Ram Quad Cab that I traded in for the Infinity. It was a 2017 model year but only had 18K miles on it so I jumped on it. I now am pushing 46K miles on it, maintain it meticulously and never will consider buying a new vehicle again, as long as I can keep this one going. I paid $28K for it from a dealer and today, with the mileage that I have on it, I can sell it easily for $33K privately. To replace it with a current year version (which, BTW is the last year that the 5.7 Hemi is being offered), I'd be looking at paying $55K and there is no way that I am paying that much for a ride.
My first Dodge Ram Quad Cab was a 2004, I beat the hell out of it running through the woods when I owned my own business and if it saw a regular oil change every 10K miles, it was lucky, but, it served me well for 275K miles before it shot a rod through the block during rush hour traffic. All I could do then, was to call roadside assistance for the tow and proudly salute it for its service.
I believe you, Chris...
In 2019, I was working in the front E/R, checking patients in, etc...
The E/R seemed to get more busier as the month went on. Pretty soon, people were lined up OUT the door with some sort of respiratory distress. The doctors kept saying it was a "Bad Flu", but I told Wendell that I didn't think this was just some flu! No way could it be with all of the other symptoms going on and people dropping like flies. 😐
Then I got sick...bad... That was definitely NOT a flu!! Then poor Wendell got it. We were crawling on the floor, miserable. I think we were down for the count for almost 5 weeks. Still, they told me....
"It's just a bad flu, did you get your flu shot?" YES I did. Sheesh!
Fast Forward to March 2020 and we all know what happened...yup, definitely not the flu. 🤢
