A Truck Named Satan

When my boys were in high school, our neighbor decided to sell his big ugly old truck. It was a 1960s something GMC pickup truck. My boys thought it would be great fun to drive around in it. It had a powerful Pontiac V8 engine some previous owner had installed and a transmission from some other vehicle. I have to admit that I got kind of excited about the prospect of seeing my guys driving around town in that monster. So, I had our mechanic go over it thoroughly and give me a report on what he thought should be fixed. And yes, there were quite a lot of repairs I would have to pay for to get it in good working order. But since the asking price was cheap, I swallowed hard, and bought the truck.

I was correct; my boys loved that big old truck. It was unique and quite popular with their friends. I’m not exactly sure why, but whenever I dove it I felt more powerful myself. Maybe that was its secret and the reason for its popularity. My older son, Andy, started calling it Satan. The name caught on and enhanced its reputation even more.

Besides being fun to drive, Satan was also useful. I occasionally used it to carry large items I didn’t want to try cramming into our car, and Josh, my younger son, got a lucrative job hauling trash with Satan for the City of Medina.

Satan gave us good service for about four or five years. By then, Andy was in college at Washington State University in Eastern Washington and Josh was a senior at Bellevue High School. Sometime in his sophomore or junior year, Andy drove Satan over to college. By then the truck had seen its better years, he was on his last legs (or tires). Finally after spending a lot of effort to keep Satan going, Andy gave him away to a friend who had some mechanical skills and wanted to work on the poor old thing.

Now, if you ever find yourself driving in Eastern Washington near Pullman or Colfax and you see a big ugly old truck coming your way, smile and give a salute to a special truck named Satan, and know that he gave one family a lot of pleasure.

Dave Waldo is a Northwesterner who recently wrote and published his first book: Sharing Personal Stories: Creating, Writing, & Telling Stories People Love to Hear. His book includes stories from the 1940s and 50s about his life growing up in Washington State. Additional stories at http://www.davewaldo.com.

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