ODE TO AN ’87 DODGE DAKOTA
A moment of
silence please…
Stop all the
clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the
dog from barking with a juicy bone,Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
- W.H. Auden, Funeral Blues
I have
suffered a tremendous loss. The other day I came home and realized my blue
truck was missing. My truck of seven years was gone. It had died an ignominious
death just two or three weeks previous, but in true manners of the country, we
let the corpse sit outside in our dive way for a good long time. I always had
wondered why people did that…but now I understand. I did not want to let go.
I had bought
the metallic blue, 1987 Dodge Dakota used, in 2006. It already had 150,000
miles on it. I bought it for $850. It has cancer blights of rust, and the
ceiling inside the cab was falling down. The lights worked intermittently, and
the windshield wipers sashayed back and forth like an old, arthritic stripper.
But I loved
that truck.
In the seven years-plus that we owned that truck, it moved the contents of our house, of my grandparents house, helped remove two giant piles of cut down trees (each the size of a two-story house), helped plant the vineyard, carried home new furniture, lugged countless barrels, bore thousands of loads of trash and construction debris to the transfer station, trudged with tons of dirt, gravel, and mulch, innumerable loads of lumber, and oh yeah, one spoiled Dalmatian that absolutely loved to sit in the passenger seat like she was my girlfriend.
My friends
and co-workers at the winery made fun of the old rusted heap. But in spite of
all of it, in the eyes of this beholder, there was no better truck. It was a
flawed piece of machinery, I will grant you that. But every time I asked of it,
it come through every time…save the last.
I had loaded
it up with the bits and pieces of our old roof, after a new one had been put
on. It was piled high with sawdust, wood, tar paper, shingles, and crumpled
flashing. But she could not crest the hill just 500 to 1000 yards from our
house. Like an old horse, I had asked her one too many times to bear a load
heavier than her capacity. In the past she had always responded valiantly. But the
engine, now with more than 200,000 miles on it, could no longer rise to the
task, and the exhaust coughed and sputtered. Realizing the death rattle, I
pulled in a nearby drive way, and pulled a slow, slow K-turn, and glided back
down the hill and into our drive way riding the break all the way. That truck
had given me it’s all.
What is it
about a truck? You have to ask?
The Dodge
Dakota was a mid-size pickup truck from Chrysler's Ram (formerly Dodge Truck)
division. From its introduction through 2009, it was marketed by Dodge. The
first Dakota was introduced in 1986 as an 1987 model alongside the redesigned
Dodge Ram 50. The Dakota was nominated for the North American Truck of the Year
award for 2000. The Dakota has always been sized above the compact Ford Ranger
and Chevrolet S-10 but below the full-sized pickups such as Dodge's own Ram. It
is a conventional design with body-on-frame construction and a leaf spring/live
axle rear end. The Dakota was the first mid-size pickup with an optional V8
engine. One notable feature was the Dakota's rack and pinion steering, a first
for work trucks. Dakotas have been used by police and fire departments, as
off-road vehicles, patrol cars, or even brush trucks.
The Dodge
Dakota was conceived by Chrysler management as the first "mid-sized"
pickup combining the nimble handling and fuel economy of a compact pickup with
cargo handling capacity approaching that of full-sized pickups. To keep
investment low, many components were shared with existing Chrysler products and
the manufacturing plant was shared with the full-sized Dodge D-Model. The name
Dakota means "friend" or "ally" in the Sioux language.
The first
generation of the Dakota was produced from 1987 through 1990. It was slightly
updated for 1991-1996. Straight-4 and V6 engines were offered along with either
a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic transmission. Four wheel drive was
available only with the V6. Both six and eight-foot beds were offered. Fuel
injection was added to the 3.9 L V6 for 1988 but the output remained the same.
According to
truck expert David Zatz, “The idea behind the Dakota was to have most of the
fun-to-drive aspects of a compact pickup, along with their fuel efficiency,
while providing most of the utility and ruggedness of a full-sized pickup. The
concept worked well, at leaset for the first two generations: in its first
year, over 104,865 Dakotas were sold in the United States, neatly beating every
other Dodge truck including the entire range of full-size pickups, diesels and
heavy duty models included (that range came close to 100,000 units). The Ram 50
was the next best seller with under 77,000 units sold, and then the Ram Vans
came in at under 70,000. Sales declined somewhat after the first year until
1992, the first-generation Dakota’s best year, with a massive increase to over
132,000 pickups sold. Then the second generation Dakota, with its “baby Ram”
styling, took off.”
“At launch,
the Dakota provided a range of options, with a 112 inch and a 124 inch
wheelbase featuring a 6 ½ foot or an 8 foot cargo box; rear and four wheel
drive were both available. Payloads in 1987 ranged from 1,250 to 2,550 pounds,
with trailer towing up to 5,500 pounds. The long bed was specifically designed
to carry 4x8 panels with the tailgate closed (unlike S10 and Ranger); it had
provisions for stakes and tie-downs, and used heavy duty steel to prevent
dents. The tailgate was easily removed for longer loads,” wrote Zatz.
But what I
will remember most? Oh, so many things….
Driving the
truck with my sons in the front seat, and easting cheeseburgers after running
an errand or doing a farm related chore.
I remember beaming
every time someone told me I had too much weight in the eight-foot bed, and
simply driving away defiant and triumphant.
It delivered
all the brand new kitchen cabinets for our home and our shop in its bed, as
well as the farm supplies, and the plumbing supplies.
There was nothing better than driving with our Dalmatian Cinderella, who loved the truck! She would sit right next to me like she was my girlfriend, with her head on my shoulder…immoveable. I would put a cup of water in the cup-holder on the passenger side, and she would drink from it. She loved going through the drive through to get a hamburger as well!
I loved that
after it died the first time, we brought it back to the living with press
button starter from a lawn mower, because the ignition ring was shot; that we
held a part of it together with a bungy cord; and that I used it to start our
other cars when their batteries died.
It rumbled
like an aircraft carrier from Freehold, NJ to Ghent, NY, back and forth, two
dozen times. I drove it up and down the valley, into Massachusetts, and past
Albany both north and west.
Countless
hours were spent listening to the radio and stereo which always worked
extremely well.
I will
always miss the fact that it had an old fashioned vent!
And I will
always remember the time Dawson and I stayed at the farm and watered more than
1,200 plants by hand, and stood on the crest of the hill at sunset and looked
over the vineyard that we had all planted that weekend, and then got into our
truck and drove back to New Jersey in the cool spring night.
It was my
pet, my girlfriend, my draft horse, my office, my man cave, my mud room, my
barge, my dump truck, my oxen, my shrink, and my toolbox.
It was
dirty, grungy, beaten up, bouncy, dinged, dented, scratched, bumped, dusty, dependable,
stalwart, and downright cool. And it
never complained.
I remember
driving that ruck in the wee hours of the morning, in the hot sun, cold winter,
and chilly fall. Even when the air conditioning died, I would leave the windows
open and just ride.
It was a
dirty old pickup. I will miss that truck.
THREE
PREVIOUS TRUCK STORIES
The $850
Truck
http://www.hudson-chathamwine.blogspot.com/2007/03/850-truck-what-is-it-about-truck-why-do.html
Planting the
Vineyard Part 4
http://www.hudson-chathamwine.blogspot.com/2007/03/planting-vineyard-mad-rush-part-1-day-1.html
Joe and
Connie Rue and the Clampetts
http://hudson-chathamwine.blogspot.com/2007/04/joe-and-connie-rue-and-clampetts-my.html
posted by hudson-chathamwine at 8:25 PM
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