In Praise Of Old Pickup Trucks

Pick-up truck above Calumet River Wall, 1973

City boys got pickup lines. Country boys got pickup trucks.

UNKNOWN

When boys are boys, they like to play with toys, When boys become men, they still play with toys except the toys make more noise. This sounds like a bad nursery rhyme except this fairy tale is true and tragic. Men who never grew up buy toys to drive around. Men who did grow up give up those toys and drive old pickup trucks.

A Toyota pick up truck, Sonoma, California. 2025 

A sports car is a toy. Men buy these to impress women and each other. Other men choose a Jeep which is an expensive toy they like to take off-road and flip over in remote places. Other men with Jeeps will come to his aid and assist in rescuing the Jeep. This will be a bonding experience for them. It sounds ridiculous to me.

Soap Box Derby, Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC, July 30, 1940

Other men will buy pickup trucks except these shiny new trucks cost a fortune, are way too big, and drink up a lot of gas and diesel. I call these trucks "redneck limousines." Men buy these toys to pull their other toys--boats, RVs, ATV trailers, etc,

A real man is a working man. He drives an old pickup truck. It can be a compact truck like an old Toyota, or it can be a full size truck like a square body Chevy from the 70s and 80s. The main thing is that the truck is not a toy or a redneck limousine. It is the vehicle of a working man who needs to get work done. It isn't driven to impress or to play. It isn't a toy. It is a tool. Tools are what divide the men from the boys.

The working man is not a boy. He does not drive a toy. I am sad to say that the boys outnumber the men these days.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:11 DOUAY-RHEIMS

Thank you for reading!

Julius Dilbeck, retired miner in his pick-up truck. Clairfield, TN 1970