Craig Dunn Clark on mon 19 jan 04
I had a 1982 Dodge Ram which was given to me ten years ago for
ostensibly helping an ex professor put a second story on his house. We never
did get around to putting on that second story but I got to keep the truck,
which had 225,000 miles on it at the time. I kept it until it finally gave
up the ghost with a little over 325K. Started to have to work on it way to
much, it was a gas hog, and I knew that even if I went through all the
hassle of rebuilding it completely it would still polluteto much.
But, man-o-man could it haul! It was geared pretty low as it was
originally designed to be a work truck, not one of these highway flyin
yuppie wagons that you see running around without even a speck of mud on the
sides or scratches in the bed.It was seasoned like a fifty year old black
iron skillet. Scratches and dents galore. The bed was pock marked history. A
visual feast unto itself.
Had to rip the tailgate off after we slipped one day when loading a
1200lb piece of I-Beam out at the salvage yard. That was one of the most
beautiful peices of rusted metal (the beam, not the tailgate) that I had
ever layed eyes on. It was love at first sight. Real deep dark pitted rust
and scale...nice....sweet......absoulutely lovely.
Anyway, the old guy that helped us load it up with his miny boom off the
back of an old, and I do mean old 1960's vintage International PickUp,
didn't exactly have the greatest depth perception in the world to begin with
in that he was wearing an eye patch. He mentioned something about coming in
to close a contact with a german grenade during WWII.
On top of the missing eye problem he had been drinking, as had we, and
we all took time to enjoy a bit more of the afternoon by polishing off
another quick six-pack before undertaking the arduous task of extacting the
precious beam from the pile and putting it into the truck.
As you might suspect events got a bit out of hand, at one point we were
all laughing so hard I amazed to this day that we did not all end up in the
recently mentioned Darwin Awards ourselves. The beam was pulled, the pile
lurched, we scrambled, fell and looked back to see it (the beam) dangling in
the air.
The three of us hoisted another beer for good measure and to
congratulate ourselves (this was back before I quite drinking) and decided
to "hurry up" before the old boom gave out. Well, I moved my truck back to
quickly because it was slipping in the mud and the tires started to spin and
kick up a rooster tail of mud. Slammed it into reverse, overcompensated, hit
the back corner of the International and the beam came a tumbling down.
Lucky it came at an angle to the truck or I probably wouldn't be typing
this. It smashed the tail gate reeeeaaaaalllll goooooooood. like I said, I
lieterally had to rip the gate off, which is another story. It also involved
beer, sledge hammers, loud music, lawn chairs, a big barbeque pit that was
in the back of the truck smoking away and a recipricating saw...
I could haul an entire shows worth of pottery, steel scultpture, tent,
weights, coupla plastic chairs, granite and display. Had a full sized eight
foot bed. I put all sorts of stuff in that truck on my meanderings before I
finally got rid of it. Overloaded it more times than I could count> I know I
put a full ton of mud in it on a dozen different occassions. I'd put 1200lbs
in the ass end and the other 800 up front in the cab with me.
After that I decided I needed to get religion and became a bit of a tree
hugger. I really do appreciate the beauty of nature and decided that a small
car was the way to go. If worse came to worse I could always get things
delivered.
Drove a 1984 beater Toyoto Camry until literally last week (we just got
a two year old small body station wagon with a back seat that folds down and
will undoutedbly haul clay and pots nicely.) The Camry also hauled virutally
everything that I put in the truck just in smaller batches. Hauled over a
thousand pounds of mud on several occassions. Did the same thing with a 1998
Ford Contour (which by the way is a real dung heap.)
I guess what I am getting around to saying is that a potters car is just
about anything with four wheels that will serve the purpose.
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "Muz"
To:
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2004 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: potters cars.
> On 1/19/04 7:15 PM, "Vince Pitelka" wrote:
>
> > I have done major one person
> > shows where I pulled up in my old 1985 240 sedan, and the presenters
said
> > "Where's all your work?" As I unloaded it, it was like the clowns
piling
> > out of a VW Beetle in the circus. It just kept coming and coming. It
was
> > amazing how much suff I could fit in that car.
>
> I have a 2002 VW beetle .... Amazing little car ... Janet Smith, NZ
>
>
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