Ah yes. My first vehicle. I was 15, soon to turn 16 - In rural Texas, a vehicle was and still is mandatory for any 16 year-old's livelihood. It was key to holding a job, commuting to and from school, and participating in whatever after school activities one was interested in. My particular daily odyssey to town featured a a nine-mile-long voyage down a narrow county highway, barren of both sidewalks and shoulders. School was another two and a half miles past town. No, this daily quest could be conquered by nothing less than internal combustion.
Alas, My mom and I knew the time had come to for me to have my own vehicle. As a single mom, she couldn't afford much. While it was well understood that gasoline, insurance, and routine maintenance costs would be my burden to bear - she was putting up the dough for the purchase itself. We couldn't afford to be picky.
So one day we happened upon it. An '87 Ford F-150; 4.9L fuel injected straight six, 4-speed stick... fleetside, single-cab, short-bed, split rear window. Though only nine years old at the time, the formerly two-tone light-gray-over-dark-gray paint job had already badly deteriorated, yielding holes of scattered primer - a yet third and even ligher shade of gray - and rust, which to be honest was kind of nice since it broke up the monotony of grayscale. But looks weren't important. The price was right and The Gray Beast ran, and that's what mattered.
Even then, being the meticulous character that I am, I calculated the mileage on every last tank of gas. I'm sure the fact that I weekly re-discovered the Beast's top speed of 85 miles per hour had nothing to do with my average of 12.5 miles per gallon. Even so, gasoline was 98 cents a gallon, so two dollars a day took me to school and back. That was the price of freedom, and even with nothing more than a minimum wage job, that freedom was sweet.
I still remember my first few oil changes. Wal-Mart sold Castrol GTX for around $1.66 a quart, but I often splurged for the $2.34 a quart Syntec Blend. Run-of-the-mill orange can Fram oil filters fit the bill the first time or two.
Those were the days.
Alas, My mom and I knew the time had come to for me to have my own vehicle. As a single mom, she couldn't afford much. While it was well understood that gasoline, insurance, and routine maintenance costs would be my burden to bear - she was putting up the dough for the purchase itself. We couldn't afford to be picky.
So one day we happened upon it. An '87 Ford F-150; 4.9L fuel injected straight six, 4-speed stick... fleetside, single-cab, short-bed, split rear window. Though only nine years old at the time, the formerly two-tone light-gray-over-dark-gray paint job had already badly deteriorated, yielding holes of scattered primer - a yet third and even ligher shade of gray - and rust, which to be honest was kind of nice since it broke up the monotony of grayscale. But looks weren't important. The price was right and The Gray Beast ran, and that's what mattered.
Even then, being the meticulous character that I am, I calculated the mileage on every last tank of gas. I'm sure the fact that I weekly re-discovered the Beast's top speed of 85 miles per hour had nothing to do with my average of 12.5 miles per gallon. Even so, gasoline was 98 cents a gallon, so two dollars a day took me to school and back. That was the price of freedom, and even with nothing more than a minimum wage job, that freedom was sweet.
I still remember my first few oil changes. Wal-Mart sold Castrol GTX for around $1.66 a quart, but I often splurged for the $2.34 a quart Syntec Blend. Run-of-the-mill orange can Fram oil filters fit the bill the first time or two.
Those were the days.
