Blue Valiant

I bought the album 'Jeff Daniels Live and Unplugged to Benefit the Purple Rose Theatre' (bit of a long title) last week off of iTunes. And it is an extraordinary album. One of the tracks is titled 'Blue Valiant'. It is all about when he turned sixteen and his dad gave him the keys to the car. It is a reminiscing song. It was a bit of a beater car and there were tons of nice new cars but he loved that old car. Anyway, it got me thinking of the first car I drove.

It was an 88 Dodge Dakota. Rear wheel drive truck with a cap. I loved that truck. Andrea hated it. And near the end of high school, it got to the point where I hoped it would start, but I still enjoyed driving it. I don't know why, maybe it was because it was the truck I learned to drive in. I remember driving it in the winter before I got my license. I was in the truck with Dad, and we were on the road by the Big Bear back home and he told me to go slow around this corner and I didn't slow down enough and went right into a snow bank. And the only thing Dad said to me was 'theres a shovel in the back'. Classic Dad. Nothing fancy about it either. AM/FM radio, a beat up bed that had dried blood from years of deer carcases in the back, eventually we put ply wood down in the bed just so it didn't look that bad. It had a Lake Superior State College Alumni sticker on the back cap. It was from when my dad first graduated college and Lake State hadn't adopted the title of university yet when he got is bachelor's. There was a pull out cup holder on the dashboard. It got to the point where if you hit the dashboard hard enough above the cup holder, it would slide out. God I loved that truck.

I came home the summer in between my freshman and sophomore year of college and it was gone. In the driveway was a huge Chevy Silverado. I walked in and asked Dad where the Dakota was. 'I sold it.' Son of a bitch. It was like losing a family pet when you are gone. It is there and when you come home, it is gone. It was heartbreaking.

Kids these days (that phrase makes me feel old) don't get cars like that. Their parents spend money on them, for some reason. It is a rite of passage. When you are sixteen and get your license you get a beater car. At least that is the way it was back home. Down here in Wichita, it seems to be a bit different. I see some of the kids that work at Target driving some nice cars. All I do is just shake my head and wonder why parents spoil their kids like that. I know if and when I have kids, they aren't getting a nice car when they get a drivers license. If I still have my jeep, they are getting that and they would be the jealousy of all kids.

If I were ever to have a plethora of disposable money, I would buy an 88 Dodge Dakota just to have.