>I don't name all that many of my vehicles (SNIP!)

I do: Socrates, Sorsha, Ivan, Quandy, S.P.O.T., Ash...

But before them all was Sherman. Sherman da Tank.

>Angus was a 1966 Chevrolet C10 pickup, (SNIP!)

Was that not an epic time for a truck? For me, it was the 1962 Dodge truck Pa bought when I was in junior high.

And that random picture of the internet is practically it. Though we didn't have the wooden slats on the bed nor the red rims; ours were white to match the whitewalls.

>I should note, for the younger members of the audience, that pickups
>were a different thing in the 1960s. Nowadays they're fashion
>vehicles, with interior fittings just as plush (if not plusher) than
>their contemporary passenger cars. In the '60s, pickups were for
>work.

Yes. Yes, they were. (I don't begrudge the contractors and campers and haulers and renovators who need a pickup truck. But I have a problem with the suburban commandos using them as a fashion statement.)

>You could get them fairly fancy on the outside, but even those
>had interiors that were all business. In 1966, that meant bench seats
>with lap belts only and one (1) adjustable parameter, to wit: they
>could be moved forward or back about three inches. It meant metal
>dashboards with no padding at all. It meant heaters that did one and
>only one thing: blow some hot air into the cabin, either onto the
>floor or onto the windshield, but not both, and
>certainly not out of any namby-pamby dashboard vents. If you
>wanted to cool the interior, open the windows.

Bench seats long and wide enough for a 6' human to stretch out and sleep on. With Giant Steel Springs (tm) underneath.

Seat belts? HA! Dodge says you don't deserve seat belts! Though, honestly, some would have been nice. Rural roads + Giant Springs + no restraints equals bouncing around the cab.

Though I did occasionally use that to my advantage.

>Power steering? No. Power brakes? No. Power anything at all? No.

Manual choke? Check. Manual steering? Check, with a steering wheel 3' across. Manual breaks? Check. Three-speed transmission, on the column? Check, but don't shift into first unless you're stopped dead still.

>(Speaking of brakes: drums all the way around. And only one master
>cylinder, so if it fails, you've just lost all four brakes, and you'd
>better hope the cable-operated handbrake is in good working order. I
>discovered that mine was, one day, when the line to the master
>cylinder failed and caused my next press of the pedal to do nothing
>other than deposit all the brake fluid on the ground. There is no
>other sensation in motoring quite so dismaying as when the brake pedal
>goes all the way to the floor without any perceptible effect on the
>speed of the car. For my money, even that floaty feeling you get when
>you realize you're hydroplaning isn't quite as much of a dolly zoom
>moment as that.)

Repeated for truth. One of *the* scariest things to ever happen to me in a vehicle, and proof that Pa was the driver I wanted in the thick and the nasty. I mean, I knew it, but even a 16-year-old blockhead can acknowledge it when the old man pulls off a miracle.

We were coming up on a stop sign to a US highway at about 30mph when the brake pedal when "THUNK." on the floor. Pa stood, started pumping the pedal, said "Hang on." in that oh-so-calm-voice, threw the hand brake, and whipped around the corner onto the side road right before the highway. I just hung on.

After we stopped, I went back and looked over the corner. On the gravel shoulder, our tracks were a half-inch from the 3'-4' ditch. Like I said, the old man can drive.

>Angus had, to borrow a phrase from a certain cars-focused YouTube
>Personality, many quirks and features.

So, so many. Good stories, though *maybe* things have improved in this modern era.

>Other fun features of Chevrolet pickups of that era: the fuel tank is
>behind the seat. Yes, that's what I said. Behind the seat.
>Inside the cab. In a hard enough corner, you can hear the gas
>sloshing around back there. Heck, if it's full enough and you go hard
>enough to the right, gas will come out of the filler cap, which is
>right behind the driver's door and has no backflow prevention device
>of any kind. I'm sure it's perfectly safe.

Sherman shared this. If the tank's only half-full and conditions are
slidy, sloshing gasoline changed your handling.

Dad bought Sherman as a replacement for his last pickup, a Ford of some breed. What we *should* have done was taken this very good condition antique and restored it. But it was to be a working truck, and we used it hard.

We also lacked anything resembling our host's family's auto skills. I can swap out lights and filters and probably change oil in a pinch, but any real repairs are for the professionals.

I joke that this truck made a man outta me, but truthfully it was a good vehicle to learn driving. Quirks and all, you learned why things worked and how to drive without any filters. Nothing short of military or commercial vehicles will intimidate you after learning to drive da Tank.