Monster lives!

Do any of you out there who know me in real life remember Monster? I'll give you a hint or two. Huge. Orange (later black). Truck. Monster (aka Heavy D) was a 1969 Dodge truck. It originally belonged to my Grandpa who had bought it used as a work truck back when they lived in Kansas. I inherited it my senior year of high school. My Dad bought a chassis and transmission of an 80's model Dodge truck and transplanted it into Monster so that it had an automatic transmission. Just the transmission mind you, nothing else, and I mean nothing was "power" anything. You had to pump the brakes, the mile wide steering wheel gave me the only muscle definition I have ever had in my upper arms, and there was no radio. This is a picture I found on the interwebs. My Monster was this color (red faded to burnt orange) and did not have the wooden slats like this one does. I will have to dig out and scan some pictures I have of him.

I loved that old truck. Later, after I had bought a car off of Sheli (remember that silver cavalier?) Monster was driven by my Dad and then Ryan. who painted it black. I don't remember for sure when Dad sold Monster, but I did tear up when I heard about it. We used to joke that if none of the cars in our driveway ran, you could jump in Monster and he would fire right up. He was also indestructable. The driver side door sometimes stuck and you had to kick it open (no lie! can you picture me doing that, lol) and once I kicked it open at the gas station right into a concrete barrier. Not a scratch! Later Dad got rear-end while driving it. He got out to check the lady who hit him and the whole front hood of her car was crumpled. Monster's back bumper didn't even look damaged at all. They don't make em like that anymore.

So imagine my surprise to get a phone call from Dad on Saturday asking me "guess what I just saw?" Sitting at an auto body place off of US 40 was a black 69 dodge. He turned around and went back to check it out and sure enough, it was Monster. How do we know? He said the radiator grill he replaced (not original part) was there, you could see the faded orange paint in spots under the black, and it still had the Ball State parking permit stuck on the back window!

He is going to call or stop back by and see if it is for sale. He loved that old truck too.