Drive an Old Truck and Save your Marriage

There’s a lot of lessons in owning an old truck.

I’ve owned old trucks my entire life. Whether it’s hauling hay, taking trash to the dump, or just getting work done around the property, old trucks have always been part of my life. As long as I’ve owned land, I’ve owned an old truck. And by the way, I still think the only tangible form of wealth is owning a piece of property.

There’s something about an old truck.

I have a 1980 Ford F-350, a 1986 F-350, and we’re building out a 1971 Highboy. One of the things I want for my sons is for their first truck to be an old truck. Not because I want them driving something unreliable (although most old trucks are) but because I want them to care for something outside of themselves.

I want them to learn how to fix things, how to maintain them, and how to anticipate problems before they become failures. I want them to take pride in that responsibility.

That’s why I think old trucks matter.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve forgotten how to care for and nurture the things in our lives. That includes vehicles, but it also includes people. Everything has become so easy, so automated, and so convenient that we’ve lost the habit of investing ourselves in the things that matter most.

So yes, my sons will drive old trucks. I’ll always have an old truck that I maintain, and I’ll take pride in it.

There’s a nostalgia that comes from driving something you’ve cared for with your own hands, something you know intimately because you’ve kept it alive. To me, that’s more than just owning an old truck.

It’s a representation of how life should be lived. How life should be maintained. How life should be driven.