Born in 1944, I grew up in north Alabama as the son of sharecroppers. When I was growing up, most of our traveling was done with mules and wagons.

My father owned just one car during his life, a 1939 Ford that was broken down for most of its life because it was expensive to fix or to pay for gasoline, which was 28 cents a gallon.

In 1964, shortly after I became a married man, I spotted this 1948 F-1 in a driveway. I stopped to see if he was interested in selling the truck after looking at it for a couple of weeks. When I asked him what he would charge, he said $250. I was making $37 per week at the time, but I went back that afternoon to test-drive the truck and then wrote him a check.

My wife came home while I was washing a Ford and asked who was washing what truck. When she asked who was washing it, I said it was us.

The next question was, "Where did you get it?"? Did I pay what amount? What was my payment method? Inquiring as to how much money we had in the bank after I wrote a check, she asked how much I knew.

I assumed that because we had checked, we also had money in our bank account. Then, she gently explained that in the future, we should discuss things before I made major purchases. However, the truck stayed.I used the Ford from 1964 to 1978 to transport goats, hogs, and firewood, and I used it to hunt and fish as well.

58 years after I bought the truck, I still have my wife and we still have the truck. I enjoy driving it, taking it to shows, and taking a joyride with my "co-owner." I plan to pass the truck on to my children and grandchildren.