F-150 redux

  My first F-150 was an ancient hillbilly rebuild I bought around ’96 or so. She was a early ’80s model with the short box and the step-side and a 302.

The left front quarter panel proclaimed it an F-100, while the right front quarter panel said F-150.

Like I said, a hillbilly rebuild.

The rebuilders had also kitted her out with plush velour seating and a pop-up sunroof. My cousin Faye took one glance at the interior and declared, “Elvis lives!”

Nevertheless, she was my daily driver for a couple of years.

That driving included many trips back and forth to Guelph where my children lived.

On one of those trips, taking the children back to Guelph in the middle of a January blizzard, she gave up the ghost about half a mile north of Alma.

Me and the kids hiked it the half mile to the restaurant in Alma, where the kids had pie and ice cream while I called up my dear father on the pay phone.

Hey Dad, if it isn’t too much trouble, would you mind fetching us and maybe giving my truck a tow to the service centre in Alma.

Dad was happy to oblige. He showed up at the restaurant before the kids were done their second helping of pie and ice cream.

He had a new F-150 Supercab 4×4. The kids cosied up in there while we hooked the ten foot tow strap to my truck, and down the road we went in that January blizzard.

Unbeknownst to me, Dad had his own idea of where to take my truck, and it wasn’t that Alma service centre a half mile down the road. It was the shop of one of his cronies, twenty miles down the road in Guelph.

I’ll admit I had a bit of a panic attack when we sailed by the Alma service place, but I had no idea…

My truck was dead, meaning the power steering was dead, the power brakes were dead, there was no heater, so my breath was fogging up the windows so I couldn’t see anything…

And my dear Daddy was towing me through a January blizzard on a ten foot tow strap like it was a regular Sunday drive!

He was passing cars in that blizzard!

I clung to any remnants of hope only because I knew my dear children were warm and cosy in that tow vehicle, while I was blind and frozen in the vehicle being towed.

But we made it!