Truck Stories

My friend drives a small Sonoma pick-up, it's about eighteen-years-old and in great shape.  One day we were going to lunch and she parked next to a huge Ford F-250.  The owner looked at my friend's truck and made a comment to his wife, who snickered.   Then he looked over and said to us, "Nice, but couldn't you get a real truck!" My friend didn't bat an eye and shot back, "Sorry, I guess I don't have to compensate for any...

0430 Military time, 8 year old Theo would wake up, clean up, put on his dungarees, and fill up with whatever Mama bought that week.  By 0515 get to the corner for the farm truck to come by. Everyone there was speaking another language, yet they came to know him well. Theo was from an old mold, they said. They all remembered starting work so young in "the Old Country." Some never spent a day in school. Life was to be worke...

I walked up from the Ventura River bottom where I spent the night. Nighttime in a homeless camp is very different, a strange mixture of camaraderie and distrust. Not unpleasant, but not great either. I was only interested in sleep without spending money. Short on funds, I decided that sleeping in the dry river bottom was better than an alleyway waiting to be rousted by the police. The homeless had a great quality of not a...

Today is September 18, 2013, I was hit by a car around 10:15, I knew that because I had worn my pocket watch as a necklace. It was a normal day at first, I had other things on my mind this morning. My dad woke me up to tell me that I had to cover for my older brother again, because he forgotten to do a large portion of his chores again. I relaxed in bed until 8:30, when I decided it was time for my lazy butt to get up. I...

The Beast is the older of our two grain trucks. I better describe it , so that you have a picture in your mind of what it really is like. Its a 1968 Dodge grain/dump truck, built like a tank, unlike the newer converted grain trucks that have been used on the highways. The capacity of the box is 16 tons and it has 20 gear shifts. The PTO runs the hydraulics that hoist up the box when you unload the grain. Don't tell anyone...