I bought my first vehicle in 1980 in the midst of the great oil embargo. To this day I am not sure what that was or why. I do know you could not purchase gas for all the money you had if the station did not have it to sell. There would be a black flag hanging outside the station if they had no gas to sell, and a line of cars a mile long if they did. express shipping
I knew once I bought a car I wanted to be able to drive far and fast, not sit in my driveway because my tank was empty.I did my research and found Toyota was getting the best milage and performance. I had a dog so it had to be a truck. I ordered it at the dealership so I could pay for the necessities, not the luxuries.I ordered a brown basic but they messed up and delivered a blue extended bed with a sliding back window. It was love at first sight. It quickly became my new best friend.
The first week I had it a road trip was in order. I packed up and headed to San Antonio. It was a stick shift so getting it up to speed and over was not just economical it was fun, race car driver fun! I flew down the highway to the tune of Eddy Money singing “I love a rainy night”. It was great.
After San Antonio we went to Mississippi to canoe, Arkansas to camp, to Michigan to play in the Great Lakes. It brought me to work in between these vacations to pay for them. I was a preschool teacher so I did not make a lot of money. Thankfully my little blue truck did not ask for a lot of it. I owned it 8 years, went everywhere and do not think I changed the oil once.
It was on a summer vacation to Michigan that would be the beginning of our painful separation. I fell in love with the Michigan summer and decided to move back to my childhood home. I loaded up my little blue truck complete with a U-haul trailer on the back, and off we went on another adventure.
I was not in Michigan long before my childhood sweetheart fell in love with my little blue truck. We married and had a little girl who was the most beautiful child I had ever seen. The problem was that there were only two bucket seats in my little blue truck. Someone was going to have to go. It was between my husband or the truck. To this day I regret selling the truck.