{"id":7198,"date":"2024-07-07T08:43:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-07T12:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=7198"},"modified":"2024-07-07T08:43:57","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T12:43:57","slug":"jeeping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2024\/07\/07\/jeeping\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeeping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a Sunday Story – no politics today. Just a story about Jeeps!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cross<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Watkins Cross Country Team Shirt – 1998<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Jeep<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I bought my first Jeep Wrangler (TJ) in 1993.\u00a0\u00a0It was white, with a black soft top and what Jeep calls \u201chalf doors\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0That meant that the bottom halves of the two doors were metal, white, actual doors, while the top halves were black canvas on a springy metal frame.\u00a0\u00a0The canvas tops had clear plastic windows set into them.\u00a0\u00a0So you could unzip the window, pull it inside the door in the Jeep, and have an open window; fall, winter and spring.\u00a0\u00a0And the summer, you took the top halves off and set them in the back of the Jeep.\u00a0\u00a0The half doors came off too (as long as you didn\u2019t want side mirrors).\u00a0\u00a0As my Marine friend said, you could hang your leg out like it was an old Vietnam era Jeep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I paid bottom dollar for my brand new TJ.\u00a0\u00a0It cost extra for the rearview mirror and the back \u201ctumble\u201d seat.\u00a0\u00a0There wasn\u2019t a radio, but that was OK.\u00a0\u00a0I put my own sound system in all of my cars anyway.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And what I didn\u2019t realize when I bought it, was that Jeeps came with drain plugs in the floor.\u00a0\u00a0Top off, doors off, windows off; if you got caught in the rain (or tried to drive across a shallow lake \u2013 yep!!) then all you had to do was pry the drain plugs out and tilt the car downhill.\u00a0\u00a0The water ran right out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cult<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That Jeep was the \u201cbomb\u201d.  Even in the winter, the heater made up for the drafty windows and the four-wheel-drive kept going in the snow.  The only time I really got cold, was when it was twenty below zero with thirty mile an hour wind.  My friend Mickey and I decided to go to a movie since it was a \u201csnow day\u201d from school ( a \u201cfreeze day\u201d really).  I will admit, driving around I-270 in the Jeep was a near-outdoor challenge.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I didn\u2019t realize in \u201993 was that buying a Jeep put you into a cult, sort of like when we bought the camper twenty-five years later.  Jeep folks (that\u2019s Wrangler-type Jeep folks, not those Comanche, Wagoneer or Liberty drivers) recognize each other, especially back in the 1990\u2019s when there weren\u2019t so many of us.  It was an insider code:  see a Jeep coming, give the \u201cpeace sign\u201d above the steering wheel.  Kind of like the Harley motorcycle guys and their clenched fist, but more subtle.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could tell who had been in the club the longest.  Those CJ people (Jeeps of the 1980\u2019s) called the windows \u201cside curtains\u201d, and didn\u2019t mind that their Jeeps only had three speeds.  And they might never put a full top on their Jeeps, just a \u201cbikini\u201d top to keep the rain off of the inside of the windshield.   Jeeps were more like four-wheel motorcycles then, good for three-season driving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four Wheeling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Getting caught in a rain storm without a top was one of the \u201cfunnest\u201d things to happen in a Jeep, as long as it wasn\u2019t too cold.  You drove fast, that way the rain swept over the windshield and not down on you.  It was only when you stopped that the \u201cdrenching\u201d would begin.   Of course, there are no \u201cinside\u201d windshield wipers.  You had to have a towel ready to clear your view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 And the first time I hit a giant puddle at fifty miles an hour (on Palmer Road) without the top \u2013 I was more than surprised.  Oh, the Jeep handled it fine, but the water went over the front, over the windshield, and right on top on me, just like those wet roller coaster rides at the amusement park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did off-road the Jeep, but I wasn\u2019t into the crazy \u201crock climbing\u201d kind of stuff.\u00a0\u00a0After-all, the Jeep was my day-to-day vehicle.\u00a0\u00a0I couldn\u2019t risk flipping it over, or breaking an axle.\u00a0\u00a0So while I might fly through dirt paths (or no paths) I liked the Jeep because it made driving fun. There was really no where I couldn\u2019t go, no field I couldn\u2019t cross.\u00a0\u00a0And when it actually got \u201calmost\u201d stuck, there was always Four-Wheel Low.\u00a0\u00a0First gear might go three miles an hour, but you could \u201ccreep\u201d out of almost any mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is, except for the time I decided to do \u201cdonuts\u201d in the school parking lot after a big snowfall.\u00a0\u00a0I was spinning around, having a ball, when the whole Jeep slid on top of the four-foot snow drift.\u00a0\u00a0All four wheels were spinning, four wheel drive or not.\u00a0\u00a0As I was sitting there, contemplating what to do next, a kid from across the street came over with his Massey Ferguson farm tractor: \u201cMr. Dahlman, you stuck?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0It only took a few minutes to hook up the chains and drag me out, but he got the \u201chonor\u201d of telling the story the first day we were back in school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeep-ese<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of kids, several learned the arcane art of driving a stick-shift, out in the school fields and woods in my Jeep.  One took it to Prom, roof on, of course (wouldn\u2019t want to ruin her prom dress!).  And the Jeep even carried fifteen foot pole vault poles, slung on top of the roll bars.  It looked like some weird missile launching system \u2013 but it got us to Cleveland and back for the track meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I learned all sorts of new terms with the Jeep.  \u201cSeat belt tan\u201d, was when you drove around too long with the Jeep\u2019s and your top off.  \u201cBug Destroyer\u201d was the vertical windshield on a Jeep \u2013 it killed everything in its path, and often had to be ice scraper\u2019ed off even in the summer \u2013 cleanser just wouldn\u2019t get it.  \u201cCell phone privacy\u201d:  it was near impossible to have a phone conversation with the top off at seventy miles an hour.  \u201cI\u2019m in the Jeep, I\u2019ll call you back later\u201d, was all you could say with a hurricane in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally \u201cjust a car\u201d, when it came to driving on ice.  Four-wheels spinning on ice weren\u2019t a whole lot better than two.  Ice required an attitude adjustment.  You couldn\u2019t drive like a \u201cJeep\u201d anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old Jeep Disease<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I drove that Jeep until it got \u201cold Jeep disease\u201d.  Rust ate through the body.  By 2008 I was near \u201cFred Flinstoneing\u201d it, with holes in the floor and the door panels.  So I began a search for my next vehicle, which turned out to be \u2013 a white Jeep with a black top, two-door; this time a 2004, designated by Jeep as a \u201cYJ\u201d.  I sold my old Jeep to one of my best 400 meter runners, who ultimately sold it to the father of another runner, who took two years to completely rebuild it.  I still occasionally see the old TJ on the road, looking proud, better than it did when it came off the lot back in 1993. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still driving the \u201cYJ\u201d.  It\u2019s summer, the top\u2019s been off for a few days, and the \u201csummer, all canvas\u201d doors are leaning against the fence.  I only need doors if I\u2019m going on the highway, where side mirrors are particularly useful.  Now that its twenty years old, it too is getting \u201cold Jeep disease\u201d and the heater isn\u2019t great.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the floors are still intact, and it still drives like a Jeep.\u00a0\u00a0And there\u2019s a new \u201cJeep thing\u201d; the little rubber ducks on the dash.\u00a0\u00a0The original idea was that Jeep \u201cpeople\u201d would see another Jeep they liked, and pass on a duck to it.\u00a0\u00a0Some people get completely carried away, with dozens of ducks all over the place.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not that far gone.\u00a0\u00a0But I do have a duck \u201cfamily\u201d; Mom, Dad, older son and two duckings, \u201cfloating\u201d on the dash panel below the rear view mirror.\u00a0\u00a0They all \u201cmagically appeared\u201d in parking lots across Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0Some \u201cJeepers\u201d respect an old YJ, still going strong.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I keep my ducks \u201cin a row\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0After all, it\u2019s a Jeep!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday Story Series<\/h4>\n\n\n\n