Neon the Menace-Ster of No Fear

In January of 1994, my late husband left the house to buy a truck and returned with something that looked like the Star ship version of a Nissan pickup. It was a light-gray, single cab 1992 Nissan Hard Body pickup with a 5-gear manual transmission, and 4-cylinders. The side-rails-meant for a much larger pickup-caused the little truck to look more like a spaceship than a vehicle. The rails were an addition by the previous owner. Our son nicknamed the truck Neon and eventually bought a “No Fear” front-plate, and a sticker that said Menace to adorn the rear windshield.

Nineteen-ninety-four was a banner-year for a good many changes in our lives, among which, was the closing of Kraft Foods in Sherman, Texas. My Chevy S-10’s motor had blown-up that year and the only vehicle we had, by the time the Nissan was purchased, was the little truck. My husband paid the truck off with his severance pay, and we felt that the purchase might have been a mistake. Little could we have known that the little truck that came into our lives at such a stressful-time would be the one thing we could rely on?

Within a year’s time the little truck had been run off the road and the right fender and passenger door smashed-in. Later, that same year, our house burned and my husband upon discovering that the shed that held our few possessions had been broken into, backed off into a ditch after using a neighbor’s phone. The next accident that damaged the truck was a woman who backed out of her driveway and into the rear-right quarter-panel. It was hit the following year, when a man made a power-turn in the middle of downtown Sherman.

Sometime during the 90’s, the rain fell and turned to ice and a man hit the little truck in the front end, three or four times, while attempting to move his vehicle off the curb. Later, another accident would involve a poorly chosen turn that sent a vehicle careening into the front of the Nissan. By that time, the truck had only one fender that wasn’t scratched or dented. My son Michael changed that when he parked the truck in a ditch, late one evening. In all, the truck was in 13-accidents and continued to run. It was the best truck we ever owned.


People also view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *