Eulogy for a Pickup.

It was a boxy, bright orange hunk of metal. But that battered 1985, four wheel drive Chevy pickup in its hideously orange fleetside glory was oh so much more for the 45 year old man stood watching it go into the scrap yard.

He was lean and with a broad athletic frame his once solid black hair was now peppered with some gray. For the middle-aged Ronald Hershcorn that old pick up was trove of memories.

His day had bought brand new off a lot in Little Rock Arkansas. Ronald was five years old-- having been conceived in the back of a Volkswagen Beetle in 1980. There was many days fishing trips, vacations and other major life events in that truck including hard lessons. Ron found himself the hurricane of the teen years and was tempestuous and bumbfuzzled. He wasn't an adult neither was he a child. While on the way to a sporting goods store one day his father gave him the "talk."

Trying hard to be "cool" he'd completely marred the reputation of a cheer leader his so called friends had mocked him for liking. He fabricated an account of an explicit romantic rendezvous where her "cherry had been popped."

It spread like a California wildfire through out the high school.

Ronald's dad had caught wind of the situation and one day while fixing up the truck he sat his son on the tailgate and they had very long discussion.

Ronald still remembered that day very well. It was like acid reflux to his brain. Why did he do something so stupid to a person he had deep feelings for. He'd made it right with her but she never spoke to him again he didn't blame her.

Eleven years after it rolled of the lot the pickup became his. He was Sixteen and still mixed up and dumb. He didn't drink and drive but he did go to fast one night. It cost him a new headlight and a month without his wheels.

The truck went with him to college. He thought it be cool to paint orange because that was one of the school colors. It had been that hue ever since. Many nights were spent with his buddies in the back of that truck weather it was going to the burger place for quick refuse during finals or waiting for a movie to start or just talking.

Some nights were spent in solitude washing away the pains of life with the sounds of Skid Row or Metallica. "I'm 18" by Alice Cooper also resonated with him strongly.

While in college he met his wife and they were married in fall of 2001. He scraped up some money and bought a camper for the truck bed. The wedding night was spent there as he and his wife stopped on a deserted road to consumate their union. He was 21 she was 25. It was the night of September 10th 2001 and they were headed to New York City for the honeymoon. They canceled those plans the next day.

Soon a new life entered the world and Ronald spent time in that truck with his own son trying to pass on life lessons.

Well Ronald had been on his own for ten years. The wife divorced him in 2015. Times were hard and his son was in college learning who knows what now days! So the truck was gone now the cost of maintenance on such an old heap having become impractical. That pick up had been if three states seen 6 big moves and the sundering of a stable family. So the truck was gone now but the memories remained.