A little bit of background on the truck...

His point of view

The truck is a 1978 Ford F100 Ranger. It's all original with approximately 120,000 miles.
The original owner was Hugh Beasley, a car dealer who primarily kept the truck in storage and drove it sparingly during the summer with a camper on the bed.
My father-in-law purchased the truck from Hugh in 1988 for $3,500 with approximately 46,000 miles on the odometer. It served as his daily driver until 2003 when he got a new Ford F150. At the time, the F100 had 118,000 miles and ended up being relegated to yard duty for about 6 months until I finally bugged him enough to give me the truck.

Before incessant annoyance got to him, the wife and I would frequently visit her parents house where the truck stood in silence. For me, each trip was an opportunity to see, hear and drive the old girl. For what ever reason, I had an attraction for the truck that could have been considered borderline stalking. Who ever heard of stalking a truck?????? I have a very understanding wife.

I'm not sure where the attraction came from. Maybe it was the fact that my family always had Ford trucks. My father had a 1984 F150. It was as plain-jane as could be. Maroon, long wheel base, 2wd, 300 straight six and no power nothing. It had a 260 Air Conditioner (2 windows at 60 MPH) and 3 on a tree. Did I mention it didn't have any power assistance. No power steering, no power windows, no power BRAKES!!!!! No power nothing. Maybe it's the memories of camping trips with Dad, Mom, two kids (me and a friend), and the dog. All 5 of us would pile in the regular cab pickup with bench a seat!!!!!!! By today's standards, we would have most assuredly been pulled over and probably thrown in jail. I remember my dad and I driving to various places in town with the windows rolled down, the vent windows fully open to catch the wind (you know, the little triangle windows in front of the side windows, they have plastic levers you have to push the button, rotate the handle and push on the window and it would rotate out to catch the wind and and divert it directly on the driver and passenger) with 'John Denver' blaring on the 'hi-tech' radio/tape player. I think there were 3 speakers in the truck and I'm sure they were destroyed by the loud volumes which were required to hear over the wind noise.

Anyway, who knows what the foundation for my attraction to that green machine is. But it's enough to make me 'THINK' that I could bring her back to her glory days and maybe, just maybe, create a few memories for my family.

How could I refuse, she has the vent windows!!!!!!