Jeep

What is your all time favorite automobile?

By Tracy Schruder

My all time favourite automobile is a Jeep. I developed an interest in this vehicle back in grade seven when we went on a class track meet trip.

My teacher, Mr. Richardson, owned a 1964 Jeep Wagoneer, and some of us students were lucky enough to be travelling with him in this spacious, sturdy, and durable vehicle. During our drive to Cornwall from Merrickville, he talked to us about how he came to acquire the Jeep, how he bought it after graduating college, and went on adventures with it through muddy trails and backroads. He was very proud of this machine! At this time, the vehicle was 29 years old, but it didn’t look a day past – I’d have to say at least 5 years old, save for its design. It looked like an old-style Jeep, mostly because the newer ones were smaller and had bucket seats rather than the bench seats that his Jeep had.

It poured rain on that day, and we had what, for a kid, seemed like a long drive ahead. My teacher assured us that this vehicle, above all vehicles, would get us to the track meet on time, no matter what the weather.

The rain drummed relentlessly on the metal roof of the Jeep, more heavily at times as we passed through certain towns.

Some students were mesmerized by the rhythmic beats and fell asleep during the ride. Not me, though. At the first bathroom break, I asked Mr. Richardson if I could sit up front with him, and he allowed me to.

I was happy about that, as he and I were not very social and hadn’t talked much in that school year thus far. Of course, I was a bit of a curious chatterbox when I was a kid, so as the rain washed over the windshield and the subtle squeaks of the wipers kept time, I started to inquire. “So, Mr. Richardson, why do you love this truck so much?” He responded with the previous story that he acquired it just after finishing college, but he went on to tell me a fascinating story of survival.

The first week he owned the Jeep, he planned an off-road adventure that would test its strength and durability and would create a bond with the vehicle unlike anything he had experienced before. He was deep in the woods on Bear Skulls Trail in Calabogie when he came across a young woman, soaked to the waist in mud, flagging him down.

He stopped and asked her what happened to her, and she explained that she and her brother had gone off the beaten path and their truck was caught in a muddy stream just a few hundred metres off-road.

She was cold and looked a bit frightened, although she kept her composure. He said she was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen. Her hair and face were heavily speckled with mud, but not enough to hide a beautiful row of freckles that danced across the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were a milk chocolate brown with dark darts through the outside of the iris.

As the mud glistened and dripped from her massive head of curls, she hopped in the passenger seat and directed him where to go. In the conversation, he boasted that had she been driving a vehicle like his, they wouldn’t have gotten stuck. He assured her not to worry, that he would get them out of the stream and on their way in no time. He handed her a blanket and offered her some unsolicited mud-bogging advice.

He made her laugh and chuckle with his sarcastic expression of how, if one’s vehicle doesn’t have the Jam, it would leave you in one.

As they arrived at the location, her brother was sitting on a rock with his head in his hands. He was apologizing and said he knew that piece of crap truck didn’t have what it took to have a real good time. Mr. Richardson chuckled and introduced himself as he hooked up some chains from his Jeep to this tiny Toyota truck. The brother introduced himself, “I’m Rick, and you already met my sister, Laurie.” “I can’t tell you how grateful I am that you came along,” Mr. Richardson responded that he would never pass a damsel in distress and, of course, that his Jeep was fully equipped to take them on a real adventure if they desired, so, today or in the future. He pulled them to safety, and when Laurie asked him to follow them back to town so she could change clothes and go with him, Rick decided on other plans.

Long story short, he met his wife in that truck, and he would never part ways with it – also, it’s the best off-road vehicle ever! I really enjoyed hearing this story from him, and it made the time of our trip fly by, and by the time we arrived in Cornwall, the rain had stopped, but it was still muddy.

As we prepared for our race, we looked over in the muddy parking lot to witness him doing donuts in the mud. With a smile, I said, “What a great story and awesome vehicle – I want to win one of them someday!”