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A Datsun named Baby


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The year was 1994 and I was a senior in high school in need of some wheels. On the move up from San Diego I had wrecked my 1980 yota in a blizzard just outside Winnemucca, NV. So, me and Dad scanned the papers and looked at many vehicles, nothing got me excited till I saw that lime green Datsun pickup.

 

"Thats the truck I want Dad."

"That ugly thing?? Are you sure?"

"Yup, positive."

So we looked it over and BS the guy about it. Took it for a spin, it backfired every time you let off the gas. Long bed, 5 speed, I loved it, Dad.......not so much. It still had bias ply tires on it and a dent in drivers side fender.

 

"You sure you want this thing?"

"Yup, pay the man I wanna drive it home. Thats my baby."

The guy said it was his daughter's truck and she hated it now. It had 75000 miles on it at the time. I drove it home from Boise, Idaho to McCall. Front tires were all outta balance, every time I would hit a bump the steering wheel dam near shook right out my hands! I didn't care. I was in love.

 

Drove it to school every day till graduation. All my friends liked it too. My Datsun was voted the most enviromentally friendly truck on campus. Cuz of the color and great fuel mileage.

 

That summer I took a job at a church camp on Payette Lake. I worked in the kitchen bout 12 hours a day. One day on a trip to Boise on day off I found a 7 foot slide in camper. It was a perfect fit. $150 and I loaded it up and drove home. Wow! That was fun on those mountain roads! Took the camper out to the church camp and set it up. Thats where I lived for 3 months while workin. Every chance I got I would take "baby" out into the mountains and just drive around on the back roads.

 

Went camping on the 4th that year. Drove ut bout 60 miles to Yellowpine, all dirt roads. That night it snowed 10 inches back there!! That was not fun!

 

Took Baby and the camper down to Riggins one time. Found a neat little dirt road, started goin up. Got a few miles up and there was a rock slide, had to turn around on a 1 lane road on a 13% grade. My lil brother got out cuz he thought I was gonna back over the cliff. Took a 12 point turn to make it, but I made it.

 

That winter I got a job at Brundage Mountain Ski Resort. Everyone thought I was crazy for drivin a 2 wheel drive truck up there. I threw couple hundred pounds of wood in the back and a set of tire chains and gave her hell!! Never had to use the chains. One day the snowplow guy was doin the employee parking lot and thought it would be funny to completely cover my truck with a few buckets of snow. It was pretty funny after it took me 3 hours to dig it out. Springtime came and Baby made it up and down the mountain dozens of times with no trouble.

 

A few months and several thousand miles of dirt roads later it was firewood cutting time. I think we hauled bout 10 cords of wood in that truck that year. One time Dad was cuttin a log up on the tailgate, the chainsaw went throught he log a little quicker than he expected and went right into the tailgate. Chewed it up pretty good.

 

That same year had my girlfriend with me and we were drivin along bout 50mph and out comes a deer from the bushes. I didn't even have time to hit the brakes. Her head hit the A pillar and smashed the windshield. Her body slammed into the drivers side door and front of the bed. I was able to bang out the dent in the door but the bed stayed a little wrinkled.

 

One day I was following my Mom to town and some douche stops in front of her and backs up in the road! She slammed n the brakes and stopped in time. I was not so lucky. I hit the back of her Ford at about 10 mph. Just hard enough to break the grill and mess up the drivers fender. Went to a junkyard in Payette and got a new fender and grille. Had to straighten ut the core support by tyin a chain to it and then to a tree and backing up till it was straight. Drove around for awhile with a black fender on my green truck. Finally I rattle canned it to match.

 

Spent 2 years in McCall beatin around the backroads and haulin stuff and playin in the snow.I took her places 4 wheel drives would not go. I had put about 50,000 miles on it in that time and only work I did to it was tune ups and new tires.

 

Moved to Oregon in 96. Got into a little trouble and lost my lisence for 30 days. Baby was at my parents house bout 15 miles out of town. I was living in town workin night shift at a pizza crust manufacterer. One morning I get a phone call from Mom,

 

"Baby is gone."

"Whattaya mean gone?"

"I mean yer truck is gone, stolen. We came back from bein gone for 2 days and yer truck is gone."

 

Not 10 minutes later I get a call from an OSP trooper,

"Are you the owner of a lime green Datsun Pickup?"

"Yes sir."

"Sir, your truck is in an impound yard in Lakeview. When can you come down and get it?

"I can be there tomorrow officer."

"Be sure to provide proof of ownership."

 

Next day me and Mom haul ass to Lakeview. We get there and the "impound" yard is just the local junkyard. Baby was sittin next to a pile of crushed cars!

Turns out, the douches who stole Baby were a couple of felons who had escaped from Idaho and were trying to get to California. They broke into moms house grabbed a small safe and some car keys. They never got the safe open and took both sets of Datsun keys.

 

I got a strange look from the junkyard guy when I asked him how to hotwire my truck! :rofl: After I showed him the title he showed me what to do. We drove her 250 miles back home. The dumbass's got caught in Northern California and were sent back to Idaho.

 

1998 saw the end of Baby. She was now over 200,000 on the odo and in need of some body work. Engine still ran great, or so I thought. Late one night I was headed home from my girlfreinds house when, the engine just died. 60mph and just died. Pulled over and tried to start it and nothin, it tried to run but I heard some horrible noises come from the top end. The next day my buddy and I started lookin into it. After a while decided to take the head off. We did and found that 2 valve seats in #2 and #3 cylinders had come out and beat the crap out of the head and the pistons and the block!! That was the end of Baby...............

 

 

 

 

 

or was it. 12 years later Baby still lives on. The 5 speed went into my friends pick up and is still running around to this day. The 7' bed is now a trailer I use for firewood haulin and stuff. I put over 150,000 miles on that truck, most of it on dirt roads and trails. I wish I would have taken better care of it but, live and learn. I have given life to 3 other Datsuns since Baby.

 

At one time I had a bumper sticker on it that read "Don't laugh, its paid for!!"

 

Best truck I ever had.

 

 

 

I still have one of the pistons and connecting rods from Baby, a reminder of all the good times we had together.

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