MY FIRST TIME DRIVING

           

It was a rainy day in October in 1967. It had been raining for about three days and all the back roads were very slick. Bud showed up and asked me if I would like to go hunting with him. I was about the age of 12. He was about 25. I was very short for my age. But I love to hunt for deer. We hunted a lot together over the years. So when Bud showed up and asked me to go hunting I was very excited. He had an old truck. I think they called it a pile made by Dodge. It was only a 2 Wheel drive truck. It was an army green color and had very large front fenders. The front of it looked like a face with a chrome grill for a mouth.

It was a 2 Wheel drive truck. So it could get stuck very easily. We were going up Sugar Creek canyon in Franklin County, Idaho. The road was always very slick. I wondered “What is he thinking?” but he was going to try to get up that hill.

We did not get up the road very far before we slid off the road. We slid into a very deep gully. It had to be at least 3 feet deep. The back half slid into the golly. The front of the truck was still out on the road. So it was going to be very hard to get the truck unstuck. He had a jack in the back of the truck. It was back in the time when you had bumper jacks that hooked to the bumper of your vehicle. The bumpers were very strong in those days. Those days were back in the late 60s. And the vehicles we drove then go back to the 50s.

Bud got the jack out of the back of the truck. I jacked the truck up and Bud pushed on the side of the truck up towards the road. We would get the truck up about three or 4 inches and the truck would slide off the jack towards the road as Bud pushed on the side of the truck. Bud is a very big man. He is about 6 foot four and weighs about 230. So when he pushes on something, something is going to move. We worked at this for a long time until the truck was back on the road. But it still wanted to slide back into the gully. Bud came up with the idea that I would drive the truck while he pushed it from behind.

Now I’m not a very big boy or person. I think that I was under 5 feet or smaller. So when I got in the truck to drive, my eyes were looking in the middle of the steering wheel. When I looked out the window, I was at such an angle that I could only see the sky and not even the front of the truck. When I stepped on the clutch, I had to grab the bottom of the steering wheel to push down on it, and I was on my tippy toes when I did it.

Bud turned the steering wheel and the wheels in the way that he wanted the truck to go. He got everything set up and it was time for me to use my driving skills. That had to be funny because I had no driving skills. But we were going to give it a try. We had no choice. So Bud got set. And told me when to let the clutch out.

He yelled, “Go!” I let the clutch out and gave it the gas. The truck swing out of the gully and I stopped the truck before we could get into more trouble.

I had to be a sight. The top of my was head even with the bottom of the window. My hands were on the bottom of the steering wheel. My tippy toes were on the gas and the clutch. I can see it all right now. It had to be a funny sight.

There were worse spots further up on the way up the hill and we knew we’d never make it.

Bud got into the truck and he drove away and we went hunting somewhere else that day.