The Little Red Pick-up.
Our little red pick-up truck is a Nissan 1400, which was bought in 1987 with money my mother inherited from her late grandmother. It has a white canopy.
In South Africa we call pick-up's; bakkies, thus I shall henceforth use this term. The little red bakkie was my mother's vehicle, and her pride and joy. When it was new it was a prime example of its kind. It was a bright shiny red, factory finish, and the interior smelled of a new car.
My mother went on innumerable outings into the veldt on holiday, and to do bird watching with my stepfather, in the red bakkie. They went on several holidays with it, which involved lengthier distances and farther trips.
The bakkie saved my bacon several times. Once I was traveling home through the Karoo on my motorcycle, and got trouble with the chain at Bloemfontein. I was unable to ride on, and was stranded. My mother came and fetched me and my bike with the little red Nissan.
On another occasion I was on AWOL from an army camp I was doing in the northern part of the country, at Messina. I got a call at home saying I should return immediately, as I was about to be reported. My mother and stepfather took me all the way up north in the little red pick-up. We drove along the border wire late at night, and they dropped me at the tent where I was stationed. I got away with that one.
One night in the mid-nineties my mother helped me tow a wreck of an old kombi bakkie, from Laudium, to our home about twenty or thirty kilometers away. The wreck had no lights or engin. All it had was brakes. It was a risky maneuver, and to make I more so, we undertook it at night. A stretch of the road is bad, to make matters worse. Nonetheless, we eventually made it home safely, with the Kombi in tow. (Thereafter a friend and I broke into an old scrap yard some nights, to acquire parts for my Kombi, but that's another story.)
Apart from all these adventures, the bakkie also did a lot of work in its lifetime. It was used for hauling bricks, rubble, garden refuge, small moves, and innumerable other small transporting tasks. It was our little workhorse. We moved whatever goods we needed move, with the little red pick-up. And still it took us everywhere on holidays, trips to the veldt and fishing trips. Even an occasional trip to the coast.
I started working at a bar in 1998, and soon afterwards started work at one in a lawn bowls club. Around the year 2000 I started driving to work in the bakkie after my mother acquired a newer vehicle. I have been driving it ever since, although it is still officially my mother's car.
Towards the end of 2002 I left the barman job at the bowling club, and started a small enterprise of my own. I sold clothes to people on the street with; you guessed it, the little red bakkie. (My clientele was mostly black people.) I did this for two years, and once again had a good few adventures in the little red pick-up.
Many days I drove around, alone or with a companion, meeting people on the streets, and selling clothes to them. Eventually, I started losing interest and decided to take writing more seriously for a while. Which is what I did this past year (or endeavored to do.). Now its back to the drawing board, again, and that means I have to start looking for work again next year.
The vehicle is now nearly twenty years old, and has done almost five hundred thousand kilometers. It has had three gearboxes, and it has only been re-bored once. It is still mechanically sound and in good condition. It also looks fairly well, having been spray painted recently. It is still going well, but with a few minor niggles.
The little red bakkie as brought us far, and have given us much pleasure. We have had a lot of memorable adventures in it, I cannot help but wonder where it will take me next.
The End
Copyright ' JP Brown ' 01/01/2006.
