I'd like to share a happy memory that I've been thinking of this morning.
This was in the 1968 or 1969 time period, I was 10 or 11 years old. Around a year before my dad died.
He had a big old dump truck. I think it was a Ford. I don't know the model, but it was freaking huge, and had a huge non-OEM dump box on the back that he fabricated. It was red, and had a fake leather bench seat that had several tears in it. It was a true work truck.
He used to take me everywhere in that truck. It took me about 3 or 4 minutes to get in the thing because the seat was covered with hammers, screwdrivers, transistor radios, staplers, boxes of nails, etc.
He would let me sit on his lap and steer on the dirt road leading into the dump. He also taught me how to "drive" it of sorts...how to use the clutch, how to shift gears, etc. However, I could not drive the thing in any consistent manner. My legs were too short and the clutch was too heavy for a child of my age to really operate correctly.
This one time, he had just backed the truck out of our driveway, and he had pulled up and stopped at a red light at the corner by our house. There was one car stopped behind us, nobody else.
The light turned green. It took a few seconds to get the truck off the starting line. Since the clutch was so heavy, if he was stopped at a light, he would put it in neutral and take his foot off the clutch to rest his leg. So getting the truck moving again involved depressing the clutch, finding first gear on the temperamental stick shift, releasing the clutch and giving it the gas. All of this took a total of maybe 3 seconds.
So anyway, as soon as the light turned green, that very second, the guy behind him lays on his horn for about 5 seconds. My father looked in the mirror and the guy was throwing up his hands and mouthing "LET'S GO"!!!!
My dad turned the truck off with the key. He pointed at the glove compartment and said "Give me my mask". I opened up the glove compartment and handed him his very realistic looking gorilla mask. He said "Stay in the truck" as he put his mask on.
He stepped out of the truck and shut the door behind him. The car behind him was continuously laying on his horn now. His window was open, he was sticking his middle finger out his window, and he was yelling "GET A FUCKING MOVE ON!!! WHAT'S YOUR FUCKING PROBLEM??? LET'S GOOOOO!!!".
My dad just waved at the guy while wearing the gorilla mask. He stuck a Tiparillo cigar through the mouth hole in the mask, struck a match, lit the cigar, leaned back against the truck door while puffing on the cigar in his gorilla mask, and continued to wave at the guy until the light cycled from red and then back to green again. He then got back in the truck, started it up, and continued down the road.
Memories.
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