theHword.com

What to do, what to do…

Growing up in Wyoming, my first transportation, after Shank’s mare and a series of bicycles, was a Ford Model A pickup. I mentioned it often to my son, in high school then and working for Randy Chick at the old Fleetway Service Station that one thing led to another, and eventually a ’49 Chevy pickup mysteriously appeared in our driveway, towed there by said son with said service station worker.

It ran…But it didn’t “go.” I dropped the transmission to replace the clutch, then “dropped” everything else, sandblasted and repainted the frame and rebuilt the engine. I spent evenings in auto body classes at CCC, hammering and welding and priming one piece at a time, which was fun for me and “tolerated” by Judy as we stepped over and around all the parts that kept other cars out of our small garage. Finally, realizing that I had no single, clear picture of how this might ultimately look, Judy and I made a trip to a Good Guys Car Show in Des Moines, Iowa on a July 1988 weekend, where everything potentially useful was photographed and the final, composite target identified.

Fast forward, many days, many dollars; we received the mostly finished product in June, 1999, still needing an interior and a bed floor and much tweaking of things that could have been done better, but that’s a different story.

The point of this, finally, is…

After building her (her name is Hannah Rose…), then driving her for ten years, she’s beginning to look, well, tired. So the questions above, “What to do?”

Half of that question asks, is it worth returning her to, or even beyond her former glory, and the other half asks, is this really, ultimately, only a thing to get me and my stuff from here to there? In other words, is it “just a truck” or is she a “nicetruck,” deserving of the attention she used to get? (Hmm, “Just a truck” appears as three neuter words, but nicetruck as a feminine, single word…Is that the way it sounds to you?)

On the positive side, Mike Snyder, who has owned and operated Snyder Street Rods here in Hastings (http://www.snyderstreetrods.com) since 2002, and who has been “in the business” significantly longer than that, is one of the best and could quickly and easily fix all the tricky things, much, much better than before, and I’d soon have a “verynicetruck.”

Cool.

Against the argument of doing this over is the fact that it/she is just transportation right now…A second vehicle that costs me very little…Will that change if everything is again bright and shiny, and do I want it to?

Then there’s my carbon footprint; even with the “Stovebolt Six,” she burns a lot more gas than our (currently much-maligned) Prius, and the few things I’d like to do under her hood won’t change that, nor would buying a third vehicle, which we don’t have room for, anyway!

So, while there is a financial cost of doing things over and better, there’s also an emotional cost to seeing her go…Go completely away or go further downhill.

What to do, what to do…

About the author: Jack Sandeen

Born in Casper, Wyoming, Jack came to Hastings College in 1959 and married Judy Raymond in 1963. Jack enjoyed a long career with various area manufacturers including New Holland, Ag-Tronic, Inc. and Thermo-King. He retired in 2003. Son Eric and his family live in St. Paul, Minnesota. Daughter Amy lives in Hastings and is the executive director of Prairie Loft. His active retired life includes numerous volunteer activities, woodworking, classes at Hastings College, photography, gardening, reading and cooking.