You're right but my Lab is a he, and I hunt right across the road
from my house. Just hearing the truck engine start sets him crying,
he loves riding in the box with his head stuck around the corner
of the cab. All you animal lovers out there, don't worry. At the
speeds we go on the roads we travel, there is no hazard.
I only regret that because of the do gooders in St. Paul it is a
capital offense to let my kids ride back there. My fondest memories
of old trucks, besides learning to drive in one when I was 9, was
riding in the box on a warm summer evening to go to the root beer
stand in town. There were lots of trucks in my family, my Old Man
had a Chevy and some uncles unexplainedly had the other make that
starts with F.
With all the deer running around here lately, I should have mine
hanging in the garage by about 9:00 on opening day.
I have a Dodge Dakota to brave the salty roads of winter. The Dakota
is 10 years old, but is much more reliable than the newer Chevy Sub
it replaced.
After 43 years of salty roads, my oletruck gets a well deserved rest
under cover every winter, and it *will* go to bed this weekend with
fresh oil, fresh Holiday Gold Premium gas, half a bottle of Sta-Bil,
Bounce sheets all around to discourage the critters, and a 65 Buick
convertible to keep it company.
Over the winter the wood stove in the garage will be stoked up from
time to time and the truck will get a repair like getting the temperature
guage working, new brake cylinders and adjusters in front, repaired
front sheet metal, new ignition system, and maybe some new oil seals.
In the spring, hook up the battery, take out all the Bounce sheets,
crank for about 30 seconds, and it will start right up, eager to
go out and do truck things.
My truck is not a show truck. It's a truck that takes me to shows,
to the lumber yard, to the place where they sell steel, to the dump,
and anywhere else I ask it to go. Once in a while it even gets
to go to the root beer stand with the Lab riding along in the box.
He gets a hamburger too. The frosty root beer mug still sits just
fine on the glove box door.
Bruce Kettunen
57 3200
Mt. Iron, MN
At Monday, 13 October 2003, you wrote:
>Hello Bruce and Oletruckers,
>
>Ya, you're right, Bruce. When it is warm enough to plant rutabagas
in Blue
>Earth, one of Minnesota's southernmost towns, kids on the range
are still
>making
>ice for the next hockey game. When it is warm enough to plant rutabagas
on
>the range, kids in Blue Earth are getting their Halloween costumes
together.
>
>The only constant is, when we're not making ice, planting rutabagas,
or doing
>the Halloween thing, most of us are working on a Chevy Oletruck,
or wishing
>we had one to work on.
>
>For you Oletruckers closer to the Gulf of Mexico, or Mexico itself,
take
>Bruce's words about putting his Oletruck to bed for the winter next
weekend
>with a
>grain of salt. If he's like me, he'll figure his odds of bagging
the lunker
>eelpout, or the lunker whitetail are much improved if he motors to his
>favorite
>fishing/hunting spot in an Oletruck.
>
>Listen, at zero dark hundred, on the eighth of November, for the
creak of a
>slowly opening garage door. It'll be not too far from his house.
Bruce's usual
>hunting partner, if she is a lab, will make that wincing sound only
dogs can
>make when they smell gun oil but don't get to go along.
>
>A few hours, a couple of days, or a week later, Oletruck will bring
the
>hunter back to the dog. It will also bring the venison back to the
freezer.
>Bruce
>will take dog and Oletruck for a celebratory drive around town. Maybe,
>then, he
>will put his Oletruck to bed for the winter.
>
>Just my two cents worth.
>
>Regards, happy hunting, and hug your dogs,
>
>Culver Adams
>1951 Chevy 3100
>(Sort of thinking about a 1962 Suburban, some bogey wheels, and
other parts.)
>---
>In a message dated 10/13/03 4:43:44 PM Central Daylight Time,
>bekett@uslink.net writes:
>
><< Subj: Re: [oletrucks] Where is everyone?
> Date: 10/13/03 4:43:44 PM Central Daylight Time
> From: bekett@uslink.net (Bruce Kettunen)
> Sender: owner-oletrucks@autox.team.net
> Reply-to: bekett@uslink.net (Bruce Kettunen)
> To: oletrucks@autox.team.net
>
> You forgot to tell them, Culver, that Mille Lacs is in the warm half
> of the state. They usually don't get ice until sometime in December.
> Up here I've seen pickups on the ice on Thanksgiving weekend.
>
> This weekend I was using the oletruck to haul some lumber and get
> things ready for winter, really an excuse to get one or two last
> rides in it. I plan to put it to bed in the garage next weekend
> before snow hits. Driving it to work all week to turn over the gas
> in the tank with fresh Holiday gold premium ("For Use in Snowmobiles,
> Outboards, Small Engines, and Classic Vehicles Only").
>
> I'm sure our Canadian friends can top our stories. At least it still
> gets daylight for a while every winter day here.
>
> For those who don't know what a fish house is, rent Grumpy Old Men
> sometime. For those who don't know what winter is, rent Fargo.
> Fer shure, we Minnesotans never have to rewind it to pick up on the
> dialog.
>
> Bruce Kettunen
> 57 3200
> Mt. Iron, MN >>
>
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