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Well how do I start this ....
My dad farmed, his dad farmed, his dad's dad farmed (are you starting to get the picture?) I remember back to around 1975 him having a Dodge truck but I dont remember the year model, a blue 2wd model in particular (it got stuck alot on the farm) so in the fall of 1978 (I would have been 8 years old) he took ownership of a brand new beige w/ white cap Power Wagon 150 longbox.
Here is where the story hits a big speedbump in the road.
6 or 7 weeks after buying the truck he developed a headache that put him in bed and after laying there for 2 days the medics were called in to take him for a ride to the hospital. So here my dad is 31 years old at the time and we (family) are told that he has just had a large brain tumor burst inside his head. So my pap-pa finished out the harvest season with the help of a few local farmers while dad was in rehab after surgery. My pap-pa made all the payments on the truck and kept it for my dad. My dad did return to farming but on a limited schedule. He would sometimes drive down and check the rice wells when they were pumping water and would occasionally drive a tractor when he felt like it. So as for me I got to learn to drive on the farm roads and some blacktop at a very young age because he was not trusted to drive alone very much because of the siezures he would periodically have. This went on for a year or so only to have the rug pulled out from under him in 1981 when the cancer came back with a vengence and had spread all through his brain. My dad died in the summer of 81 at the age of 34. I was 11 at the time and by a wierd sick twisted version of a modern day hand me down, I was given the use of the truck so that my mom did not have to drive me to the farm everyday after school. The summer of 86 I turned 16 and my pap-pa turned 65 and deceided to retire and sell everything because he wanted me and my brother to go to school and have a better life than that of farming. So when he set all the equipment out to sell he held back my dad's old 78 Power Wagon and told me that I probably ought to keep her and drive her. Sweet!!
So through all the years of owning 2nd vehicles I have always kept her and when my others would lay down and die on me I always had my dads old truck to get me by. I kept it in decent running shape until I had the fatefull amp guage fire after I put on a new altenator several years ago. I parked it in the shop, knowing someday I would fix her and fix it right. It was not until till I found this forum and I am now in the process of fixing the wiring along with a few other minor cosmetic issues.
So here I set, 38 year old and now my son is about to turn 16 so guess what he is going to get....... My Power Wagon?
Heck no. Nobody gets her, the way I see it, thats my dads truck and I plan to keep on looking after it another 30 years.
I owe it to my dad for putting me on the earth and teaching me some hard life lessons at an early age that has made me the man I am today and I owe whats left to my pap-pa for raising me and looking out for us when times were not so good and for helping me keep the truck as that is really the only materialistic thing that I have left of my dad.
I know this is running long but I needed to put all that to words.
If it were not for this site and the information on it I dont know that I would have ever got re-motivated to where I am now to get my truck going again. I plan to restore it to the point that it is my daily driver (not going to take much at all) and keep the memorys alive.
thanks for listening
Big Joe
My dad farmed, his dad farmed, his dad's dad farmed (are you starting to get the picture?) I remember back to around 1975 him having a Dodge truck but I dont remember the year model, a blue 2wd model in particular (it got stuck alot on the farm) so in the fall of 1978 (I would have been 8 years old) he took ownership of a brand new beige w/ white cap Power Wagon 150 longbox.
Here is where the story hits a big speedbump in the road.
6 or 7 weeks after buying the truck he developed a headache that put him in bed and after laying there for 2 days the medics were called in to take him for a ride to the hospital. So here my dad is 31 years old at the time and we (family) are told that he has just had a large brain tumor burst inside his head. So my pap-pa finished out the harvest season with the help of a few local farmers while dad was in rehab after surgery. My pap-pa made all the payments on the truck and kept it for my dad. My dad did return to farming but on a limited schedule. He would sometimes drive down and check the rice wells when they were pumping water and would occasionally drive a tractor when he felt like it. So as for me I got to learn to drive on the farm roads and some blacktop at a very young age because he was not trusted to drive alone very much because of the siezures he would periodically have. This went on for a year or so only to have the rug pulled out from under him in 1981 when the cancer came back with a vengence and had spread all through his brain. My dad died in the summer of 81 at the age of 34. I was 11 at the time and by a wierd sick twisted version of a modern day hand me down, I was given the use of the truck so that my mom did not have to drive me to the farm everyday after school. The summer of 86 I turned 16 and my pap-pa turned 65 and deceided to retire and sell everything because he wanted me and my brother to go to school and have a better life than that of farming. So when he set all the equipment out to sell he held back my dad's old 78 Power Wagon and told me that I probably ought to keep her and drive her. Sweet!!
So through all the years of owning 2nd vehicles I have always kept her and when my others would lay down and die on me I always had my dads old truck to get me by. I kept it in decent running shape until I had the fatefull amp guage fire after I put on a new altenator several years ago. I parked it in the shop, knowing someday I would fix her and fix it right. It was not until till I found this forum and I am now in the process of fixing the wiring along with a few other minor cosmetic issues.
So here I set, 38 year old and now my son is about to turn 16 so guess what he is going to get....... My Power Wagon?
Heck no. Nobody gets her, the way I see it, thats my dads truck and I plan to keep on looking after it another 30 years.
I owe it to my dad for putting me on the earth and teaching me some hard life lessons at an early age that has made me the man I am today and I owe whats left to my pap-pa for raising me and looking out for us when times were not so good and for helping me keep the truck as that is really the only materialistic thing that I have left of my dad.
I know this is running long but I needed to put all that to words.
If it were not for this site and the information on it I dont know that I would have ever got re-motivated to where I am now to get my truck going again. I plan to restore it to the point that it is my daily driver (not going to take much at all) and keep the memorys alive.
thanks for listening
Big Joe
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