I have a theory. About trucks.
I think people get spooked around trucks. There’s a fear factor there.
I am not talking about semis. Everyone is scared of those rolling tanks. I’m talking about what my daddy used to call “pick-em-up trucks.”
It was my dad’s pickup truck that I drove around in high school … had a shift on the column and a clutch that enlarged the calf muscles in my left leg.
I was lucky to have the truck, but it was not my dream vehicle. I had no desire to own a pickup. But that attitude, my friends, has changed.
I’m retired. My lifestyle flipped. I want to pull a small fishing boat and easily haul around “stuff.”
I was ready to get a new SUV with lots of space in back, but I had this little itch. I mentioned it a few times to my wife.
“I think I might get a truck,” I said.
She wondered if my hillbilly blood was boiling and shrugged it off. She even said to a friend, “Would you ever expect Lonny to have a truck?”
“Nooo,” said my friend.
And that, you see, fits into my theory. People don’t see trucks. They see who might be driving them. Kind of like judging a book by its cover.
Let me tell you a story: We were attending a wedding and took the truck. Pulling into the parking lot, a car suddenly backs out in front of me.
We both slam to a stop, but I see the guy driving the car is a longtime friend. I know all he sees is the truck. So I play it. I open my window and lean out, fist in the air and start shouting at him.
He doesn’t see me -- just a truck with vampire teeth. Panic in his eyes, he starts mumbling that he’s sorry. Even as I started laughing, he didn’t catch on right away.
So you see, it’s true. People get scared around trucks.
And you know what? I kind of like it.
I’m Lonny Cain, and that’s my Perspective.
