Chevy Truck

The first vee-hickle I remember my parents owning was a 1972 Chevy truck - I am 90% sure it was yellow. Dad had bought it off the milkman, and it was legendarily shitty. Jokes flew around Woodward about how I'd learned to count by looking at the dashes in the road through the hole in its floor. Its transmission was goofy. My parents were smokers, so the interior reeked of old cigarettes, gasoline, and dry-rotting vehicle upholstery. Dad hauled firewood in it, and he hauled Amish people in it, and sometimes, if I was really lucky, I'd get to ride in the back of the truck from the barn to the house.

One day, the transmission probably blew on him again, and he had to take it to Cowher's Garage, about a mile away at the edge of Woodward. Trouble was, he could only use two gears: first and reverse. He decided it was probably easier to get to the garage in reverse, all things considered. I crawled in the truck with him and off we rode. Backwards. Down the lane the quarter mile to Pine Creek Road. Through the track of woods to the edge of Woodward. Through Woodward, past front porches. Double-takes and laughing people gawked at us careening by as I giggled in the front seat with my father. Left, no, right onto Route 45. Backwards up the highway through Woodward Proper, and finally, during a ride less than five minutes, we landed safely at the garage, everyone roaring with laughter at that damn truck.

The truck was soon retired. Apparently it reached a point where it couldn't pass inspection, so for some time it sat abandoned in our lane and it became my truck. I played in it all the time, driving in my imagination to nowhere I can remember anymore. Giving my imaginary friends rides in the back (I'd look out the window to make sure everyone was sitting down). Yelling at our dogs, Nicky and Max, from high atop the window. I'd seen The Dukes of Hazzard at the Boyer house one night, and I wanted to jump in and out of the window, but Mom wouldn't let me. In fact, she was a little uneasy about me playing in the truck in the first place, and said I could only sit in there but was not allowed to touch the gears.

I can't remember the truck going away, but I'm glad I got to never drive it backwards.