Album: Wolf Creek Pass

Classified

(Bill Fries, Chip Davis)
I's thumbin' through the want ads in the Shelby County Tribune when this classified advertisement caught my eye. It said, ";Take imme-di-ate delivery on this '57 Chevrolet half-ton pickup truck. Will sell or swap for a hide-a-bed and thirty-five bucks. Call One-four-oh, ring two, and ask for Bob.";
Well, I called Bob up on the telephone, he says, ";Hello, this is Bob speakin'."; I says ";This here the Bob got the pickup truck for sale?"; He says, ";Yeah."; I says, ";Where are ya?"; He says, ";Fourteen east on County 12, turn right on the one-lane gravel road, you can park in the yard, beware of the dog, wipe your feet off, knock three times, and bring your billfold.";
Well, I tooled on east on County 12, turned right on the one-lane gravel road, and I parked in the yard and a German shepherd come out and grabbed onto my leg. Then I knocked three times and wiped my feet, the dog let go and the screen door opened and Bob come out and says ";Whaddya want?"; I says, ";Come to see your truck."; He says, ";Follow me. Come on, Frank."; (Dog's name is Frank.)
Well, we all went past the chicken house, through the hog pen, down to the tractor shed, and then wound up in back of the barn in a field of cowpies. And settin' right there in a pool of grease was a half-ton Chevy pickup truck with a 1960 license plate, a bumper sticker says ";Vote for Dick"; and Brillo box full of rusty parts, and Bob says ";Whaddya think?";.
Well, I kicked the tires and I got in the seat and set on a petrified apple core and found a bunch of field mice livin' in the glove compartment. He says, ";Her shaft is bent and her rear end leaks, you can fix her quick with an oily rag. Use a nail as a starter; I lost the key. Don't pay no mind to that whirrin' sound. She use a little oil, but outside a' that, she's cherry.";
I says, ";What'll take?"; He says, ";What've you got?"; I says, ";Twenty-eight dollars and fifteen cents."; He says, ";You got a deal. Sign here, I'll go get the title and a can full of gas."; I put the nail in the slot and fired 'er up; she coughed and belched up a bunch a' smoke and I backed her right through the hog pen into the yard.
Well, Frank jumped in and bit my leg and I beat him off with a crowbar. He jumped on out and the door fell off and the left front tire went flat. I jacked it up and patched the tube and Frank tore a piece of my shirt off. Then Bob come out and called him off and says ";You better'd get on out of here.";
I went left on the one-lane gravel road, went fourteen west on County 12. Took two full quarts of forty-weight oil just to get her to the Conoco station. And I pulled up to the Regular pump and then Harold Sykes and his kid come out. He says, ";I've seen better stuff at junkyards and where'd you ever get that truck?";
I says, ";That's a long story, Harold. I's thumbin' through the want ads in the Shelby County Tribune when this classified advertisement caught my eye. It said, ";Take imme-di-ate delivery on this '57 Chevrolet half-ton pickup truck. Will sell or swap for a hide-a-bed and thirty-five bucks...";