Fred's Funny pages

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KBStang said:
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That picture of the kids in the bed of a pick up sure reminds me of a time when I was a kid about 12 years old.
For many years my parents rented a small one room cabin for the summer months. It was at a small ocean waterfront resort where family's came to camp, mainly for the dads to go fishing, mom's to socialize with other moms, and kids to play on the seashore. We knew the couple that owned the resort quite well. My grandparents had lived just down the road, and we stayed at their home every summer until they passed on. We loved the area so much we continued our summer holiday tradition by staying at the resort. The owner would often hire me for odd jobs, pumping gas at the fuel dock for boaters, mowing the grass in the tent camping area, etc. One of the weekly jobs that I loved was getting to drive his old Ford pick-up around the resort to pull the garbage bags from the many cans around the camping area, the store, washrooms, and from the rental cabins. Being I was driving on private property I didn't need a license. People were pretty easy going back in those days, and nobody ever complained that a kid was driving around. God only knows what would have happened if I ran some kid over.. :unsure:

Anyhoo..the resort owned a private garbage dump, but it was several miles down a public road, so the owner, old Jim Cooper, would take over the wheel when it came time to drive to the dump to empty the truck. I would sit in the bed, usually with a few other boys from the resort who volunteered to come along to help empty the truck. There was always a chance we might see a black bear prowling the dump, which was a big thrill for the city boys. Now I don't know if old Jim just liked to drive fast, or if he did it on purpose just to give us a thrill. There was usually lots of hoops and hollering from the passengers as we sped along, so I highly suspect it was the latter. It was a rural road and there was very little traffic on it. Even to this day, I don't recall ever seeing an RCMP vehicle driving along it.

On one dump run, a boy brought his dog along for the ride. It was a friendly mutt called Dusty. He was a handsome Airdale, and with the typical endless energy of a terrier, he loved to play with kids. He certainly seemed to enjoy the truck ride. After we had emptied all the bags from the truck, off we headed back to the resort. Just as we left the dirt road leading from the dump and back on the paved road, old JIm hit the gas. Everybody held on for dear life, except poor Dusty, who unfortunately had marginal grip on a steel truck bed. With the tailgate still down, off he slid, right out the back and onto the road. He rolled a couple times, got to his feet, and began running after the truck. All of us where hollering to Jim, that Dusty had fallen off, but I believe he thought were urging him on for more speed, so away we went, leaving poor Dusty..in the dust..:oops:
When we arrived back at the resort, we all climbed out an started walking up the road the way we had come, praying that Dusty had fared well. We didn't get very far from the resort when flying down the road, came the dog. We were elated, and we all gave him a hug and a pat, while his stubby tail was going a million miles an hour. After the reunion, he promptly walked shoulder deep into the ocean, and just stood there cooling down. I can't remember him coming on any future dump runs after that.:)
 
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