I was one of Those..

O.K.; I am one of those people who drove a vehicle for 20 years and put almost 200,000 miles on it. I bought a new Chevy pickup truck when I was in my last year of college, and for some reason the thing ran and even looked good for at least 12 to 14 years. After that it became a game. We of course had other cars in the family, I just used this one to drive a relatively short distance to work and back, and it always came in handy for removing yard waste and such. Eventually though, the rust and wear (and the fact that I was 40 years old and still driving my first car) got the better of it and I gave it to my father who's name was still on the title because he had to co-sign for it all those years ago.

The thing is; where is my $31,000?

When you have teenagers there was just no more fun than pulling up somewhere to pick them up in a truck like that, especially if their friend needed a ride too. One day the rear view mirror just decided to fall off into my son's friend's lap as we rode. Just for fun, when the stereo died, I "installed" an old one from a tag sale and rigged up a CD player out of a computer and duct-taped it to the bottom of it. It skipped a little over bumps, but worked for the most part while fitting the decor and overall ambiance of the vehicle. "Never spend more than 3 dollars for anything for this truck," I would say. Too bad the gas station wouldn't listen.

A recent column titled "Summer Ode to a Beloved Rust Bucket" by Jay Bookman really sums up this whole mentality in a hilarious way.

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