Strange dream

Strange dream at wake-up this morning (Monday, May 2, 2011).
A gigantic black full-size Chevrolet diesel pick-up was idling unattended on a side-street near where we lived years ago in Rochester.
It was from the old Taylor Chevrolet on Winton at Blossom that went defunct years ago, was torn down, and replaced by a Tops supermarket.
But it was a 2011 model.
The idea was to make it available for test-drives.
No one was in it. It was just parked, idling.
“Well, I’ll try it,” I thought, as I clambered inside.
It was dark inside, but I toggled the floor-shifted automatic transmission into “Drive.”
Off we went, slowly toward Winton.
“NO WAY,” I thought, as I eyed its back far away in the inside rear-view mirror.
I once had a vehicle this large, a 1979 E250 Ford van.


Somewhere in South Dakota. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

It took two moves to get it into a parking-slot at Wegmans.
With its gigantic 138-inch wheelbase, the first move was to turn toward the parking-slot.
There wasn’t enough room to do a single swing.
Then you reversed, and turned again.
It was like docking a ship.
In fact, we called it “the Queen Mary.”
I loved that van.
It was gigantic, but no wasted space.
Once I stashed 38 dark-brown plastic sacks of leaves into it.
Culled from Irondequoit curbsides.
And it was only half full.
A lot of me was in that van.
I had rebuilt the entire cooling system.
BJR recored the radiator, three to four rows.
110 degrees with the air on, up to Mt. Rushmore.
(It didn’t overheat — it wasn’t even stressed)
We drove it all the way to Montana.
Camped out in it every night, and hadn’t planned to.
38 degrees in July near the Grand Tetons, and every American, BY LAW, should be required to see the Grand Tetons at dawn.
We also drove up Pikes Peak, another legal requirement, although I’m told it’s no longer gravel.
You didn’t make mistakes.
1,000 foot drop-offs awaited beside the road. (No guard-rails.)
The front-suspension of that van was long swingarm forgings Old Henry would have been proud of.
But now I’m used to smaller vehicles; our current van is our 2005 Toyota Sienna.
The gigantic Chevy pickup didn’t appeal.
I’m not into the macho gig.
All I did was drive around the block, and repark it.

• “Winton” Road is a main north-south thoroughfare on the east side of Rochester. “Blossom” Road is a west-east thoroughfare, that goes east out of Rochester a short distance where it ends at a T-intersection. We lived on Winton Road.
• “Tops” is a large supermarket-chain based in Buffalo we occasionally buy groceries at.
• “Wegmans,” is a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester we often buy groceries at. They have a store in nearby Canandaigua. (“Canandaigua” [“cannan-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city to the east nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)
• “Irondequoit” (“ear-RON-de-quoit;” as in “quoits,” the sport) is a suburb northeast of Rochester.
• “BJR” was an independent shop in Rochester that repaired radiators and heater-cores.
• “Air” = air-conditioning.
• “Old Henry” is Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company. The Model-T had an elegant forged beam-axle up front.