Ice cream on Sunday is enough

Love doesn’t make sense

I've had a few midlife crises, and I'm not sure I'm done yet. The way I figure, they're like doughnuts. You shouldn't have one, but you end up having four before all's said and done.

My third such doughnut happened four years ago. Having plowed under my parking lot (another doughnut) and built a tiny loft behind my office, I was no longer in daily need of a vehicle. Most everything I needed was within three city blocks -- home, office, grocery store, courthouse, bank, restaurants, park, library and church. I'd go a week or more without revving the engine. It got me thinking: If I could drive anything, even the impractical, what would I want to drive?

I've always preferred trucks to cars. Coming from the country, if you didn't have a truck, you were near useless. There was a never-ending need to haul something, be it firewood, lawn mower or muddy dog. And given the option, it wouldn't be just any truck. It'd be a classic.

Thus began the hunt for Blue Belle, the 1978 Ford F100 I now call my own. I drove the hills looking at hunks of junk until one day when I found a truly beautiful thing.

I was in Lead Hill, Ark., which is about 3 miles east of nowhere. From a small white house on a lonesome dirt road, an older man and woman came out to greet me. I liked them instantly. We chatted about plants and horses and items bedecking their porch. Then they opened the garage.

There sat a fully restored, showroom-perfect 1966 Ford F100 sidestep short bed. My heart leapt. It was exactly what I wanted -- although it was Welch's grape jelly purple.

The man and I hopped in to take her for a spin. He told me about the truck and the awards it'd won over the years. At a crossroads, he stopped and turned to me.

"Why do you want to buy this truck?" he asked.

"I dunno," I sighed, shaking my head. "Why do you want to sell this truck?"

"I dunno," he sighed, shaking his head.

"Why is it so ... purple?"

"Well, I married my high school sweetheart. Purple and white were our high school colors. We've been all over the place to many a car show and had lots of fun in this truck. But we're of an age, we don't do that anymore. Nowadays, we only drive it to town for ice cream on Sunday afternoons. Hardly seems reason to keep it."

His price was too low, and I knew I could buy and sell that truck for twice the money, if I took a notion. But I didn't take a notion.

"Sunday afternoons seem reason enough to me," I smiled.

I got a note from the couple a few months later, thanking me for not buying that truck and asking whether I'd found what I'd been looking for.

I had. I'd found Blue Belle in Elkins, and a beautiful love story in Lead Hill. Makes a person want some ice cream.

NAN Our Town on 02/14/2019

Upcoming Events