Riding in the Back of the Truck

The other day I posted about Tricia and I taking Benjamin and his cousin Vincent down to the bayou to go fishing.  They had a good time and caught some catfish. Since I don't have a pickup truck, we all loaded up in the Honda Civic I use to commute back and forth to work in.  It is good on gas mileage, but not so good for carrying people down to a fishing hole.  Into that little car in almost clown-car fashion, we packed in fishermen (and a fisher woman), fishing poles, tackle boxes, a container of night crawlers and a BB gun.  It was quite a sight.

It made me think of different things we would do in car trips when piling in a vehicle growing up. We had an Oldsmobile station wagon in which you could lay the back seat down, and it would form a perfect platform on which to lay out sleeping bags and rest on long family vacations.  We also had an Oldsmobile Delta 88 and found that there was a flat place behind the back seat beneath the window that you could stretch out on and take a nap.  Seat belts weren't really thought of and somehow we made it to adulthood.

Growing up on a farm and traveling on dirt roads in rural Louisiana, we spent a lot of time riding in the back of a pickup truck.  Riding in the bed of a truck was the best!  According to THIS LINK, that activity is now illegal if you are under the age of 12.  First they took away lawn darts and now this!

Pickup Trucks (R.S. 32:284) - Under 12 years of age may not ride in an open truck bed or trailer.

After doing farm work, we would jump into the bed of my Dad or my Grandpa's pickup truck, and we would ride down the road with the summer breeze blowing through our hair.  We would  turn our faces toward the wind, opening our mouths and letting the wind blow into our mouths like a dog does, laughing hysterically at each other's funny faces.  Sometimes if you weren't careful in doing this, you'd end up eating a bug or two!  Although the photo below is just one I found on the Internet and not one of us, it brings back memories.

Image Credit

While we're on the subject, another thing we'd do is put the tailgate down and ride sitting on the tailgate, tapping our feet on the gravel road beneath us as we drove down country roads. We would spit out of the back to see how far we could spit.  We would search for dirt clods, pine cones, or rocks in the back of the truck and try to hit road signs as we drove past them.

Image Credit

Riding in the back of the truck allowed you to connect more with your surroundings.  I would assume that this also partially drives the allure of motorcycle riding.  When you are riding in the back of the truck, you can smell the scent of ligustrums blooming when you rode past a farmhouse.  When you rode underneath the shady canopy of the oak trees that covered the road, you could feel the temperature of a hot Louisiana summer drop by 10 degrees.  After a thunderstorm, as you enjoyed the coolness of the wind blowing through your hair, you could smell the freshness of rain and see the steam rising from the blacktop road as anticipated the Dr. Pepper and honey bun that we would soon enjoy when we arrived at the country store.

Riding in the back of the truck was one of those simple pleasures of growing up in the country and as I think about it, it brings back fond memories.