Tinman really does live in Podunk :-X04

I'm always surprised at guys who think because I live in MT that I'm sitting on a goldmine of old trucks. I don't know where that impression comes from cause I haven't found any fields full of them around here.

Course it might be cause a lot of old trucks are still working daily - or at least weekly...and are worn out heaps held together with baling wire and duct tape.

Ed,

You just struck a nerve with me. Kind of related to the original theme of this thread. I live out in the country on a farm at a dead end road. My house is at the end of the dead end road which is about a 1/4 long, there are no other houses on the road. There is really no reason for anyone to come down the road unless they have business with us. You wouldn't believe the interesting activity that comes down our road. Here are just a few that I've had in the last 24 years:

1. The guy found in our milk house covered in mud, high on PCB. He buried his car in the back of the farm. He was being chased by the cops.
2. Two druggies who drove through the trees, shearing off two 8" trees. They were pretty bloody but well enough to cuss at me like a sailor.
3. The drunk who rang the door bell on Thanksgiving morning at 6am, temp at -20°.
4. Drunk mother with 5 year daughter who drove her mini van a 1/4 mile down the cow lane.
5. Drunk lady who ran over my mail box at 11 pm and fought with the cops in my kitchen when they tried to arrest her for DWI.
6. My all time favorite, a mother high on drugs who, with her 5 year old daughter came through the farm around midnight on a Sunday, ran over five calve huts injuring 3 calves, one my son had to put down.

These are just a few of the incidents that happen at the end of our road, there are a lot more. People are always surprised when they come out and say we live in such quiet location and I start telling them the stories. On top of all all this we get our share of garbage thrown in our fields that we have to pull out before any field work can be done. I could make another list of the junk we've drug out of our fields.

I don't really blame some of these old coggers being leery of strangers coming to their doors. They don't know if they're there to just talk or check out what they have on their land so they can come back later in the night to rip them off.

Bob, it sounds to me like your road needs a locked gate :-roll

That's what the cops have said but I hesitate to do it for two reasons; it would cost me a couple of $200-300 to put one up, two I doubt it would help much to stop a drunk or druggie who can't see a stand of trees in the middle of the day or the lady that first ran over the calve huts going forward, plowing two calves and their huts into the side of a building and then backing up and running over two more huts in reverse before driving off. All I see is me replacing gates every two years and being sued by some moron who hires a slick lier, I mean lawyer to sue me because I placed a dangerous obstacle in his poor clients way as he we taking a pleasant drive in the country.

Heck bob you don't live in the rust belt like it said on your location MORE LIKE THE NUT BELT !!!!!! LOL LOL

Yeah Bob, I know what you mean.....we had a couple of escaped fugitives (armed) hiding out on the next farm over. We found out later they came across my field before being caught at the highway 1/2 mile away. Scary stuff...

BTW, I list my location as Podunk as a jab at my hometown, Kalispell Mt....there are much worse places, I'm sure.....

Back in the 50's when I was kid there was a local story going around like this: Some one was stealing gas in the neighbourhood...two or three places a week would get hit. No one could catch the culprit, they stood over tire tracks in the snow, analysing. They stood over boot tracks in the snow, or mud, analysing. Finally, one of the neighbours up the road says "hey, I shot the a$$ off the guy". Apparently, he got a bead on the culprit with his 12 gauge the shells loaded with Kosher Salt and shot the pants right off the guy. He did call in to the local police and report it...he said come and get this guy running down the highway with no pants on.

I have one of these flip-side rude people stories. One late night, cold and dark out, I get a knock on the door and this guy is standing on my porch, and says to me someone told him I have an old Mustang in my garage I'm not doing anything with and that I should sell it to him. I didn't know this guy from Adam and surely don't know who told him about my garage contents. I told him it wasn't for sale but he proceeds to badger me, on my property, about how he's more deserving to have my car than me, and he wants to see it, etc, etc. I was trying to be polite at first, but as he continued to harass me, I was becoming less and less hospitable. I thought for a while I was going to have to call the cops to get rid of the guy, but I finally just went in the house and shut the door. I have no use for people with attitude like that.

35 years ago, my brother used to own and drive a '66 Bronco pickup. About 25 years ago, he sold it to one of his buddies. It broke down and now sits behind the buyer's house. About that time, I asked him if he would sell it to me. "No, I'm going to fix it up and drive it" was his response. A couple of years ago, I asked him again if he would sell it. "No, after I retire, I'm going to fix it up and drive it".
He's long retired and it still sits there in the weeds.

Irony is that the people I bought my house from in Sedona moved to Kalispell!

I hope they aren't getting bugged by people like down here!;)

I went through Kalispell about 5-6 years ago while on vacation. My wife's pastor told her he was assigned there early in his career and told my wife you'd be lucky to get caught in traffic because nothing happens there. We spent over an hour stuck in traffic, they were tearing up the road going out of town and would only allow a few cars at a time go out and come in.

Not quite a "going to restore it" story but when I was a kid my dad knew a well off family and had worked on their cars since he started working on cars when he was a teen. The matriarch of the family was getting on in years and decided she didn't want to drive any more. This was in the late '60s, she was driving a '55 Cadillac and my dad said she always had the car garaged and had the car tuned up and oil changed every year even though she only drove it maybe a couple thousand miles a year, at most. When she decided to give up driving her son told my dad he could have the car free but he'd have to check with his siblings first to make sure none wanted the car. One sister-in-law wanted it. About five years later the guy called my dad and told him he could now have the car because the sister-in-law bought a new car. My dad was really excited and went to get the car. I was playing in street and saw this old beat up, rusty hulk rolling toward me, it was the Caddy. Turned out the family who got it let it sit outside and allowed the kids to use it as a piece of playground equipment. It still ran great but it was totally beat up, inside and out. Very sad to see such a grand car so beat up.

Bob,

I appreciate you sharing your stories. I find it amazing that the human brain can retain such minute details of an event that occurred long ago in our lives. You find out that people are no different regardless of where they grew up. We all have incidents and its fun to share those memorable experiences that chronicle our being, whether they are scary, humorous, poignant, or agitating. ;)

Ed,

I agree, I find it strange I can't usually remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I can remember a extremely unimportant incident that happened to me when I was 8 or 9. I can remember almost every detail of the site of my dad driving that beat up Caddy up the road toward me like it happened an hour ago. I can also remember the day my dad bought my truck. I remember after searching for weeks for the right truck going to look at this rusty old truck and thinking he wasn't going to buy that piece of junk and him opening the car door and annoucing with pride he just bought a truck. That memory too is also burned into my mind. Again, I can't remember what I did last weekend but I can remember this stuff from decades ago.

The human brain is a strange thing.

LOL... We just don't have a defrag button for our brain...

I had a slightly different thing happen to me 2 years ago. One of my 54s was parked about 100 feet off the road in its usual spot. I am use to having people stop by and look at whatever I am selling. This guy drives up my driveway, parks a little close to the 54 and gets out. I walk over from the shop next to my house and inquire what he needs. He tells me that he wants to buy the 54. I politely tell him that I just got done with its resto and that it wasn't for sale. This guy proceeds to tell me that EVERYONE has a price and offers me $6000 for the newly remodeled truck. I was stunned to say the least. Again, I politely informed him that the truck wasn't for sale nor would it be up for sale anytime soon. He stood there with a dumb look on his face for about a minute. During this time I am truly starting to wonder if this guy plays with a full deck. Suddenly he smiles, turns around, gets in his car and leaves. I went back to work....

The next day I came home from running errands in the 54 and this guy is sitting in my drive. I am not pleased at this point. I get out out of the truck and walk up to him. He has the nerve to tell me that the truck needs a bath. Needless to say it was time to get rude. It took a threat of police involvement to get this guy to leave. To this day I don't know what this guy was thinking or what he was up to. I kept everything locked up real tight for awhile though. I do enjoy when I am out on the town the truck and having people stop and ask me about it. These days I think twice before going up to someone's house uninvited. Lots of crazy people out there (besides us truck addicts that is.)