| When we were in our pre-teens, one of the farm trucks we owned was a big 1947 (I think) Dodge "straight truck". To us it looked really BIG, but it probably had a 20 foot bed with big sides along it. It was purchased VERY USED from the "Box Shop" (a basket factory) in our small Berlin Hts. village. I'm sure it had "seen better days" when we bought it. It was mainly used in harvest season to haul harvested corn, soybeans, and wheat to the local "elevator" (mill), either in Collins or Shinrock which were both about 4 miles away. Other times it was used to haul corn and grain to one of the elevators to get "feed ground" for the many beef cattle we had on both our farm and the one we ran down the road. After our father died when we were 12, Uncle Ned took over running the farm. He unfortuneately lacked the talent our father had for running the farm to its full potential. One of his major areas of neglect were routine and preventive maintenance of equipment. Over the immediate ensuing years, all the equipment and vehicles started to deteriorate from lack of proper maintenance. We used to raise several acres of sweetcorn (just a fraction of what Tim raises these days) every season. Tim and I would take a tractor and wagon and pick the sweetcorn and bag it in large paper bags and load the Dodge Truck for Uncle Ned to haul to the Cleveland Market about 50 miles east of us. Upon his return from one such trip, he related the following account which over time has grown to be one of the many "Classic Ned Stories"! On the way to the market, he was stopped somewhere in Cleveland by a police patrolman. The initial stop was precipatated due to the lack of rear mud flaps. After noting that infraction, the patrolman then started circling the truck to have a closer inspection and after completion of the cursory check noted the following: the driver's side running board was rusted off at the end and was held up by baler twine, no muffler, the cords were showing in both sets of rear dual tires, no windshield wiper blades (the ends of the wiper arms had worn deep groves in an arc across the windshield, the rear license plate was hanging sideways on one rusted bolt, the headlights didn't work, the brakes were worn out and barely worked, no emergency brake, one rear tail/brake light didn't work, no turn signals, overloaded, etc., etc... There was a long list of several other defects that my Paxil saturated middle-aged brain cannot recall at the moment. After the patrolman recited all the aforementioned plus many more defects, Uncle Ned figured he was surely doomed, that the truck would be immediately impounded and that he would be hauled off in handcuffs to jail to await a traffic court appearance and a record fine no doubt! After the officer completed the defects list, he slowly wagged his head and after a time of a long uncomfortable silence said to Uncle Ned, "Buddy... if you have nerve enough to drive this thing, I'm going to let you go"! AND HE DID! Unfortuneately, this scary "wake up call" didn't have the slightest effect on Uncle Ned since he continued to drive the old Dodge truck in its deteriorating state until it finally "gave up the ghost" from age and continued lack of maintenance. It sat along side of the lane in the weeds for several years with the rest of the many pieces of equipment that met the end of life from lack of maintenance. |
