The “47 Willys Jeep

Let’s go back and be 17 for a few minutes as I relive a different kind of “senior” moment. Enjoy!

The ’47Willys Jeep

The summer of 1966 is when they first met. Dan was working for his uncle as a laborer for his uncle’s masonry company and the Jeep was an indispensable tool. It would haul up to 300 brick at a time and could pull right up to the scaffold in any kind of terrain. It seemed to relish the uneven or muddy ground. Its ancestors had served valiantly in WWII. This particular one was a civilian version marketed to the farmers, hunters and sportsman after WWII called the CJ-2A. The early years of this mechanical mule were murky and unknown to Dan but that didn’t matter. It was love at first sight. He had just gotten his license a month before and anything on wheels that used gasoline and that he could drive was heavenly. He’d never felt so much freedom as he did behind the wheel of anything and the jeep had special powers!

The summer flew by as young men’s summers do. Dan’s focus and energy was now poured into football. He lived for the controlled violence. You see, he was an Alpha male. Puberty and Alphas don’t go together well. Puberty had been tough on Dan although he liked the results. He suffered the indignity of the red splotchy acne all over his face and the life changing hormones coursing through his veins caused euphoria and depression, sometimes in the same moment. It was like an invisible needle injecting narcotics into him at will. It left him dazed and confused sometimes. This process was complicated by the Alpha. He always knew the Alpha was there. In 2nd grade the teacher had a game called red rover the class played at recess. The class would stand in two lines facing each other with their hands clasped together at the wrist. The teacher would say, “Red rover red rover I send Dan over” and he would race to the opposite line and try to break through the classmate’s arms. If he broke through he got to pick the next person to be the red rover. The Alpha would come out and he raced though the “line”. He never failed to break through, in fact, he would do it with so much force the other kids would just release their grip and let him through. The game wasn’t much fun for the Alpha.  As he aged the Alpha appeared more and more. In the 4th grade a 5th grader started picking on him at recess. He ignored him at first but the kid just kept badgering him, using foul language and physical threats. Dan didn’t like bullies and stood up to the kid. The kid pushed him and started to throw a punch.  Dan didn’t like fist fights. A lucky sucker punch or a stumble could affect the outcome. Before the kid knew what hit him he was on the ground with Dan’s legs wrapped around his mid section in a scissors lock and his head in a head lock that seemed like a vice. Then the playground protocol began.

“You give?” Dan asked.

“No!” the kid replied, barely able to muster the wind to speak. The vice tightened.

“You give?”

“NO” again. The vice tightened even more. This went on for the remainder of the recess. One of Dan’s friends came up and told him that recess was almost over. With all of his remaining strength he pulled. The kid’s bones started to creak and groan like a chiropractor was working on him. His face was becoming ashen and finally he said the words that would end his ordeal.

“I give!” he said just as the bell rang. Dan released him and got up. He stood over the kid, who was barely able to move and gasping for breath, long enough to look him in the eyes and make sure he understood about the Alpha. In an instant the Alpha was gone and Dan was back. He knew he had to hustle to catch up to his class. As he hurried up the stairs he felt the tightness of the muscle exertion. His face was so red his ears burned. He had the sinking feeling that he would soon be called before the principle. This kind of vigilante justice was not tolerated. He spent the rest of the afternoon in dread but the call never came. The teachers had turned a blind eye and the kid was so embarrassed for being bested by a 4th grader that he kept his mouth shut. He never again bothered Dan or any of his friends. Maybe the Alpha could be used for good. You know; Truth, Justice and the American way!

It was now the summer of ’67, and his 17th year. His baby fat was gone. The combination of hormones, his physically demanding summer job, and football training had left him looking older than his years. That was a good thing as far as he was concerned. He returned to work for his uncle but the jeep was gone. It had been replaced by a newer version, the CJ-5. As fate would have it the old jeep had been sold to his uncle’s neighbor. Dan had to pass by it when he caught a ride at his uncle Don’s house. He happened to mention it to Don one day and Don said in passing that it was for sale! The wheels in his brain started turning. If he did away with the evening cheeseburger basket at the Charburg and take his lunch to work he could swing the $200 dollar dowry demanded of the owner to make the old mule his own. A week later he was the proud owner of a 1947 CJ-2! The honeymoon was short lived. After all, the jeep was 20 years old. Most mechanical marvels of its age were already languishing in a junk yard. Every time he put gas in it he had to fill it with oil. He started carrying a gallon plastic jug of used motor oil with him that he begged off of the local farmer he bailed hay for in past summers. He went through some water on the road and found out the floorboard had lots of holes.

He was always pushing the poor jeep to the limits. He had forgotten how many times he had to call someone with a tractor to pull him out of a mud bog or the middle of a creek. Most of the time, they would shake their heads and laugh at the kid in the old jeep. Slowly he learned the limitations of the jeep and how to drive it and had to be rescued less and less. Over the course of the summer he worked on the jeep. Sheet metal for the floorboard, a newly rebuilt engine and a fresh paint job made the jeep more presentable. It was still no chick magnet. He only had one girl that ever rode in it and only because she missed her ride home from a hay ride. He took her to the Charburg so she could catch a ride home.

Summer had faded into two-a-day football practices. The Alpha had been dormant for quite a while. It was too busy with the jeep and football to cause much trouble. One late summer Saturday Dan decided to go for a cruise in the jeep. His wanderings took him around the Noblesville Park where the local municipal pool was teaming with teens trying to beat the 90 degree heat. He had just pulled up with the intention of checking out all the bikini bodies when someone said, “Hey”

It was Doug Hite and Don Fernow. They were teammates. Doug was the right tackle and went about 260 pounds and Don the right guard and weighed 220lbs. Their size alone was very intimidating. Add in the fact that they played ball and had a reputation for hurting people, on and off the field. Dan said “Hey”

“Take us for a ride” Don said as he climbed into the jeep on the passenger side, not waiting for a reply. Doug piled into the back. There wasn’t a seat in the back so he stood up and grabbed the top of the windshield. Dan backed out of his parking spot and drove out of the park toward the country roads where the jeep was more at home. What happened next was kind of a blur. They were coming upon a ninety degree bend in the road. If the jeep went straight it would go down a gravel ravine out into a grassy meadow about forty feet below. If it negotiated the turn they would go on a nice afternoon drive. The cable usually blocking the entrance was gone. Before Dan could act, the Alpha took over.

“This is private property!” Dan screamed at the Alpha but only in his mind. “We could get in a lot of trouble!” The Alpha ignored the warning. Before they knew it the Jeep was in 4×4 mode, low range and ready to go.

If asked, Dan will disavow any premeditation in the following events but there was the incident in the 3rd grade when he and Don clashed on the playground. Don was an alpha too. And he had bested Dan in a war of words. The Alpha hadn’t forgotten. Don had made a terrible mistake. He let Dan’s Alpha have total control. The mix of testosterone, gasoline and the clash of the Alpha’s could not end well!

Before the passengers could bail the jeep was headed down the ravine. It made a growling sound like a mamma dog protecting her pups as it rolled down the ravine, the jeep pushing the engine instead of the engine pulling the jeep. Like a surefooted mule it descended down, displacing the gravel as it went. Some of the gravel reached the bottom before they did. As soon as they hit the Meadow the Alpha shifted into 2nd, and then 3rd. A couple laps around the flat meadow were too tame for the Alpha. He spotted the entrance to a trail in the thick woods that bordered the meadow. He shifted back into 1st and entered the unknown. Doug was in the back just trying to survive the branches hurling at him like so many catapults. Don was hunkered down, scooted almost over to the gear shift, as the limbs tried to forcibly remove him from his seat. Dan spotted something ahead that was out of place. In the middle of the trail was something gleaming in the intermittent sunlight. It was a trail bike parked in the middle of the trail! He slammed on the brakes. The nose of the jeep dipped and came back level 6” from the back bumper of a dirt bike.

The owner of the bike was desperately tugging on the handlebars trying to move the thing out of harm’s way.

Sorry, didn’t see you.” Dan said. In Alpha speak that meant next time ask before you impede the journey of an Alpha on a mission! The jeep continued its mission after the obstacle was removed. Back out into the meadow they went to the relief of the passengers. The Alpha sensed that he had sufficiently subjugated his passengers so it was time to leave. Don and Doug were hanging on with white knuckles as the jeep made its way back up the ravine. It got about half way up when the wheels started spinning. Gravel flew as the forward progress halted. The Jeep was now digging its own grave. Dan stopped and reversed course before the grave got insurmountable. Down they went. The 2nd attempt was the same.

“You guys are going to have to get out so I can get back up to the road.” Dan said.

They exited more that willingly. As they scrambled up the ravine Dan searched for a way out. Next to the ravine was a steep hill covered in grass and weeds. At the top was a level path leading back to the road. As they watched at the top, Dan went into action. He backed up and attacked the hill in 1st gear full throttle. About half way up the jeep’s forward progress stopped and the wheels spun.  The second attempt, 2nd gear, engine screaming, a little more progress but the same result. Third try. He was out of options. If this didn’t work he would have to admit defeat and call someone to bail him out of his predicament. He got as far back in the meadow as he could and paused to contemplate his final attempt. The Jeep screamed in protest as he hit each gear. In 3rd gear low range, twenty five miles an hour tops he hit the hill. The jeep groaned. In an instant he topped the hill. The jeep wailed as the burden of traction left the wheels and they freewheeled in mid air. The jeep was completely airborne!     Time warped as he was tried in the court of the laws of physics. If he was found guilty, he would perish, along with the valiant jeep, at the bottom of the hill.  He HAD to get this alpha thing under control, and he would, if he lived through this! The gavel came down not guilty. With the Grace of the God who made those laws the jeep settled down on its back bumper and hit all four wheels like a cat thrown out of a window. The suspension bottomed out and settled level. They had survived!

After that display he felt he had to say something profound so he said “You guys ready to go?”

They piled in. The ride back was subdued. No one spoke.  The Alpha knew he had committed the first cardinal sin of losing control and the second one of poor judgment. They got out of the jeep and Dan pulled away. As he was driving home, he was lost in thought, reliving the “flying jeep” in his mind.

Monday morning after school he headed for the locker room to get ready for football practice. He was back to his seventeen year old invincible self.

The manager came in and said “Dan, coach wants to see you.”

“He probably wanted to implement a new defense.” Dan thought to himself. He entered the office and the coach motioned him to set down.

As soon as Dan set down the coach started in on him! “What are you trying to do, kill the whole team?”

Dan was briefly puzzled until it hit him. They had ratted him out, Doug and Don had ratted him out! He took the coaches tirade with the proper straight face. After he was dismissed, walking down the hall, a broad smile crossed his face. The Alpha, Dan, and the jeep, had achieved LEGEND status! It was going to be a very good year!

Dan Fulton