The Truck

This is the not quite complete story of my husband's dad's truck. It is a beautiful piece of art, as any of his siblings and mom will attest to, though I'm pretty sure at least his siblings were a bit surprised when it finally emerged from the garage after 15+ years to see that it had somehow managed to shrink a bit :)

This was the truck that Bryan's dad babied. Dad was a talented improviser, and a bit of a jerry rigger, but not when it came to this truck. The interior looks like it just came off the production line. The paint job is a one of a kind (or at least it was until everyone started copying it because it looked so flippin' awesome!). And it has all sorts of little custom detailing he did himself. It is a beautiful, beautiful piece of work.

Through a series of circumstances, and for a variety of reasons, we decided to buy it from his mom, with some hesitancy. It held memories for ALL of his siblings, but especially Andy and Dallin, so it didn't seem fair that any of us should end up with it. It was Dad's baby...and doing anything with his baby without him there...that's just hard. That has been true with most of his things as we have started the sorting and cleaning process, but especially with his beloved trucks. Luckily, Dallin and Alex have born the major burden of the cleanup projects at Mom's house up to this point, and Marne has been Mom's shoulder and rock as she has gone through the house, room by room to sort through years and years of memories. It makes me glad we'll have at least five kids to spread the love around :)

And as fun as it was to dream and hope that Mom would take the truck up as her primary source of transportation, she chose the van. I guess a truck maybe isn't her most practical option at this stage of her life, but man, would she have looked cute :).

With a little nudging (and a lot of elbow grease) from his brother, Alex, last weekend it came out of the garage. It wasn't running, so they towed it to the mechanic. It had a lot of work to be done just from sitting so long, so we weren't expecting to get it back anytime soon. So when his mom came over yesterday, acting like a giddy school girl saying it was sitting in front of the shop, ready to go, we were all very surprised! She gave Bryan a ride to pick it up. He was even in the middle of making pizza (which he loves doing) and he just left! For him, that's saying something :)

When he pulled up to the house behind the wheel of the truck, I saw something I haven't seen for a while....a big, huge smile. He told me later that he felt guilty that a "thing" had made him so happy.

Now backing up for a minute, Bryan has been missing his Dad a lot lately. A couple days ago, when he finished his bookshelves, he got up to go find his dad to show him. He caught himself before he got too far, but he's just really been missing him lately. I think, more than the truck making him happy, he felt close to Dad. And when you are missing someone so bad it aches, that is truly a gift.

Now this story wouldn't be complete without telling you about Aeden. Aeden "helped" last weekend with the whole yanking the truck from the garage adventure. His helping was mostly him screaming loudly each time it moved :) So when he saw the truck in the front yard yesterday, he dropped what he was doing and ran screaming to Bryan, "THE TRUCK! THE TRUCK!" Aeden is a pretty animated kid, but I have NEVER seen him that excited about something. It was fun for Bryan to have a partner in crime, I think. Aeden wanted to take the truck out on the town, but had to settle for a ride around the block. When he asked Daddy to go again, Bryan told him we had to pay money to get a special sticker so we could drive it. Aeden was like, "It's okay, Daddy. I'll make a gicker." Later, Andy took it for a drive around the block. When he came back, Aeden mistakingly thought Andy was taking the truck (for good) and oh, he was not going to have any of that! "You CAN'T take the guck!!!" Good thing Andy has a sense of humor with Aeden's overprotectiveness :) That night, as Alex and Danelle left, Alex jokingly told Aeden to go give the truck a kiss. Without missing a beat, he ran from the house into the 20 degree weather in his jammies, and gave the front wheel well a tender loving kiss.

At least we know it will be loved well into the next generation... :)