I've Got My Sprite, I've Got My Orange Crush

[shanmonster]

For the past few nights, I've been having dreams about the old family truck. In one dream, I'm cooped up in the truck during an enormous wind storm. The wind has picked up to ridiculous speeds, but for some reason, the truck doesn't blow away. But the wind is so strong that the metal in the doors is beginning to peel away like the lid of a sardine tin.

I still remember when we bought the truck. It was 1978, I think. My Mom walked into the Chevrolet dealership and was talking with a salesman he abandoned us to go talk to a rich-looking fellow.

The owner came up to us, and Mom proceeded to buy the most expensive vehicle on the lot in cash. The man who looked like he shit gold bricks didn't buy anything. I'll bet the salesman kicked himself royally over that one.

The truck was a 3/4 tonne orange pick-up with a crew cab and extra-long box. We needed a big honking vehicle because we were farmers. We'd transport anything from hay to piglets in burlap sacks. And with the long, regular commutes to the city and a couple of coast to coast trips, it felt like I lived in the truck. We carried our home on the truck. While travelling across the country and British Columbia, we lived either out of a camper or, later, a 31' fifth wheeler.

When you live with three other people and several pets in a travel trailer, you take your privacy where you can. The truck served as my office, at times, and I'd do my homework or read books in the back seat.

The truck was also part of my own personal playground. I remember practicing balancing by lying on my back across the back of the front seat. I practiced backbends across the same seat, too. I also used to put a ladder up to the box, and trained my dog Buoy to run up the ladder when I yelled "Fire!" I trained my pets to do all sorts of weird things....

I named the truck Orange Crush because of the roadkills. Many a frog/bug/bird succumbed to the juggernaut that was the orange Chevy. A few dogs launched themselves in front of the truck in suicidal attempts at car chasing, too. We hit a rooster, once, and the farmer's son ran out with an axe to finish the job. They had roast chicken for supper that night. I'm not sure, but I think Orange Crush may have been the same vehicle which hit my school bus driver's daughter. The kid was Kim White, and she was sledding across the road on a blind turn. As we came around the turn, there was no chance of stopping. Kim was lucky. She grazed her head on the wheel and only had a minor concussion.

After more than twenty years of heavy use, the truck was finally consigned to the junk yard only a couple of years ago. The odometer had looped three times (I think it was almost to its fourth go-round).

Comments

[mymagritte.livejournal.com]

Ah, memories and dreams. Always an interesting combo. Ran across your lj via an interests search, and added you to my friends list.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Welcome!

[threadwalker.livejournal.com]

Awwww. I like your truck story. It sounds like it acquired a soul along the way. :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it acquired one, but it helped usher plenty off this mortal coil....

[real-bethy.livejournal.com]

Question: Why would you transport piglets in burlap sacks?

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's because we didn't have pet carriers. Burlap bags were just the way small critters were transported. Even now, when I go to the vet, I carry my chinchillas in a sack.

[sageincave.livejournal.com]

We brought my kittens home in a cloth shopping bag. I started swinging it absentmindedly...when I realized what I was doing and looked inside, the kittens had fallen fast asleep.

[threemilechild.livejournal.com]

Our kittens /loved/ being hammocked into a towel and spun around. (Until they get to a certain age, when they start hating being swung around. Cats are weird.)

The orange gargantua

[(Anonymous)]

I remember helping to pack things into that orange monstrosity when you moved from M'ton to F'ton several years back - the first thought I had upon looking under the hood was "that actually drives?"

It did - we piled it up at least ten feet high with furniture and drove it to another city as though it had done similar tasks a thousand times..

Re: The orange gargantua

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I remember that drive. It started raining on the way back, and my bed got soaked. Dad broke my big mirror, too, when he tried to bend it around a wheel well.

And who might you be?

[monkehtree.livejournal.com]

I love this story. I grew up in a family that drove large Buick wood paneled station wagons. We drove one from Saskatchewan to Montreal, then the followng summer from Sask to BC. I got to ride around in the back with the luggage, spread out and read or sleep or whatever. Oh the days of not harnessing your kids to the seats.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Before we had Orange Crush, my Mom had a little red Datsun with a covered box. I remember riding in the back with another kid. It was very exciting, and quite illegal.

I also remember driving in the back of Dick Juneau's pickup truck with his enormous brood of children, and having to grab the smallest one when she nearly flew overboard on a big bump. Whee!

Orange Crush Info

[raine-storm.livejournal.com]

It was saved from the junk yard... In fact if you look really carefully around the Oromocto region, it is in fact back on the road, and apparently working as well as it ever has. It wasn't the truck that Kim hit, that was the red datsun.
I remember the balancing beam activities, of course, I also remember you shoving me off the back of the front seat. :P I can also remember us getting in a shit tonne of trouble when mom and dad realized that we were trying to hold club meetings under the truck. I think I was 4 then.