Circa 1976....While working for Dyke's Bikes bicycle shop in Fort Collins my pop met my Mom. That was cool for me. Mr. Dykman, my Pop's boss had a 1956 Willys jeep. I was told they would load it full of fixed up old clunker bikes and deliver them to less off kids on Christmas eve. My Pop took ownership of the jeep after being owed a few too many paychecks. A few years later after I was born my Pop took the engine out to rebuild it. I was 3 then. Anyhoo, my mom and Pop split up and it got a bit ugly. The engine got tossed out with the bath water but I made it through. Kind of. When I was 16 I went and drug the jeep out of the neighbor's field who had been storing it there for my Pop. As a 16 year old I knew that all it needed was a fancy paint job and a big ass roll bar. Total fuck head. So the jeep then sat in my step-father's field for another 16 years and then I got a shop with a yard and stuffed it into a horse trailer and brought it to a new home. The day after I started into the project the green bug followed me home. Projects multiply so well.
I have no want for a jeep and other than being a patina pervert it has no value to me beyond my Pop's history. My motivation right now is centered around building a daily driver race car out of the green bug. But in trying to tie up a loose end I did go pick up an engine for the jeep last weekend and plunking it into the old chassis did do something to me. I wonder how long it will sit before I try to make it all run again. The jeep is a lot like my family relations. I try. Now and then we all try. Thankful to have what I have and I hope my friends and family are as well.
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