a newspaper man adjusts his pen

Monday, March 9, 2009

A requiem for the pickup truck


Toll 43 crash, originally uploaded by Scott Beveridge.

The relationship with my truck has lasted longer than some marriages.

Therefore, it nearly required preseparation counseling before trading in the 2001 Ford Ranger today for a compact car. And it’s going to take some time to adjust to steering a kiddy car around Washington County after driving a man ride for the past eight years.

I’m going to give props to Ford Motor Co. for this reliable truck model, as mine required hardly any maintenance save for oil changes and tire changes over the course of its 191,000 miles on the road.

That was until its latest inspection Friday, when the mechanic determined it’s nearing the end of its usefulness and would cost too much to put back on the road. It’s no longer safe to drive. But with that kind of miles under its hood, it’s impossible to complain about its demise.

So, “Travel with a Beveridge” will now be traveling incognito in a baby-poop gold Ford Focus and enjoying the savings at the gasoline pumps.

Meanwhile, Amanda next door at the office has decided to wear a black armband Thursday for the truck’s after-work memorial service at Union Grill, where she will perform the funeral Mass.



(Caption: That's my old truck in the distance at a wreck on the Mon-Fayette Expressway in Fallowfield Township)

2 comments:

MJ said...

Out of the thousands of photos you shot, this is the only one with your truck in the frame? You might want to make it clear to your readers that your truck is far away in the background, and not the twisted metal surrounded by PennDOT workers on a lunch break.

Wisegeorge said...

Your mechanic, or you, may have been too hasty. A few thousand bucks is nothing next to a car payment for four years. I had an 88Ranger that I passed on to my son and he sold it to someone else a couple of years later when it needed another clutch. I still see it driving around every once in a while. I need a truck, I never should have let my kid have it.