Wednesday, August 18, 2010

A Scout is ...


Middlebrook, VA | Spring 2010

I think I have posted this shot before, but it is still on my mind. It's at my dad's farm, taken while wandering around the property and spending some quality think-time. This Scout was a field-truck for the University for years, and when my dad retired his students pooled together and bought it for him. Pretty cool.

Well, it just so happens that my very first "car" was also a Scout, and I have so many fond memories of that truck it's ridiculous. I learned how to drive in it, and I learned how to take care of older vehicles, or better, I learned how to keep them on the road. In the first week of owning mine it caught on fire (I saved the main wiring harness by burning my fingers to keep the thing from spreading). Next, I think my alternator bracket came apart up in the mountains. Hobbled home. Then, my battery exploded. My shock-bolts broke on several occasions, and I had loads of electrical gremlins. My lights would come on at will, so I had to disconnect my battery when parked at school. The rear signals never worked right. The wipers would turn on and not turn off. On and on and on. But, I had that truck for 7 years and still miss it to this day. It broke down on me in east St. Louis (just like the song) on the road to Idaho, and that was when I had to let her go ...

I took the top off in the summer, installed a roll-bar, had tomato plants growing in the back for a season, backfired and scared a girl off of her bike on Highland Avenue, had first dates, music festivals, camped in it, slept in it, moved with it, and rigged a boombox in the backseat to blare my mixtapes with. It was awesome, and makes me realize why Neil Young wrote "Long May You Run" for his first car. Boys and their cars, heh?

So, now my dad wants to get rid of his, and I am soooooo tempted to take it off his hands. I know it would have it's own gremlins, but would that be all that bad? The memories would be worth it, right?

2 comments:

cmp said...

So tempting. I am in serious negotiations with my wallet / brain.

cmp said...

Should be picking it up this weekend!