’47 Willys Jeep to the Rescue!

Last Jeep story for a while. Time to move on to different times.

As with most teenage infatuations, Dan’s passion for the Jeep dwindled after a few cold and snowy days of winter. As it turned out, the heater or defroster didn’t work. It couldn’t be a daily driver so the Jeep was stored in the garage for the winter. It was parked with its back end to the wall in the far corner as close to the wall as possible. Things accumulated around it until the Jeep was camouflaged as part of the garage. One night in early spring the call came. Information was sketchy but a friend from school was stuck just a mile from Dan’s house and he needed the Jeep to come and pull him out.

Dan donned his coat and headed out to the garage where the Jeep had enjoyed its first winter indoors in recent memory. He started UN-piling all the stuff that had accumulated around the jeep. When he had cleared as much as he could in the path the Jeep needed to get out he cleared a space in front big enough to allow the jeep to move back and forth and work its way out. He got in and turned the key. The Jeep groaned for an instant before it went dead. The battery had drained over the winter and didn’t want to start the old Jeep. He didn’t have time to charge it up and he couldn’t get to the battery to jump it with another vehicle so he got out of the Jeep to survey the situation and come up with a plan B. In his seventeen year old Alpha brute force mentality plan B consisted of him getting in front of the Jeep, bending his legs, locking his back and lifting for all he was worth. He couldn’t quite get the front wheels off the ground but he took enough weight off the front end that he could scoot the front over a few feet. He re-positioned himself and lifted again and again until the Jeep’s front was headed down the cleared path.
He walked around to the driver’s side and pushed the Jeep out of the garage into the elements, steering occasionally to keep on course. He stopped and leaned against the Jeep to rest. The weather had been cold and rainy for a week. With the snow melt and the rain everything seemed soggy. It wasn’t raining this night but the saturating moisture in the air made it feel like walking in a cloud. He could see the steam rise from his body warmed by the exertion. As his Dad was backing the car up to the Jeep Dan hooked a chain to the front. He then hooked it to the back of the car as soon as it got close enough for the chain to reach. He climbed into the old Jeep and pulled out the choke, turned on the key and put it in second gear. He waved to his Dad as he pulled the chain tight. Dan put his foot on the clutch as his Dad started to pull. In a few feet he let out on the clutch and the Jeep lurched and fired. He pushed on the clutch and the brake immediately to alloy the Jeep engine to turn freely and for the Jeep not roll into the car in front of it. This routine was one they had practiced many times. It seemed even if they had two vehicles on the road they only had one good battery.
The Jeep coughed and sputtered as the black smoke rolled from the exhaust. Dan pushed in on the choke gradually as the engine warmed. Soon it settled down to a purr. He couldn’t resist gunning the engine a few times just to hear the noise. He climbed out and put the chain in the jeep and climbed in. It felt good to again be behind the wheel of his friend. He feathered the clutch the first time so the engine wouldn’t stall. The battery would charge on the way. Besides, he didn’t plan on shutting it off. As he ran through the gears a big smile crossed his face. The cold, misty night air invigorated him as he and the old Jeep rolled on to their next adventure!

He turned left at the intersection and went a half mile till he came onto a road that intersected the country block in the middle. It wasn’t much of a road, a little gravel on top of clay dirt used mainly by farmers to get the crops in in  the fall. He turned right and saw the headlights of a truck pointing toward him. As he got closer he recognized the utility pickup that belonged to his high school buddy Richard’s Dad. It had the utility bed with tool boxes loaded with any and everything needed to keep the farm equipment in the fields. The closer he got the more he realized something wasn’t right. As he pulled beside the truck heading in the opposite direction his headlights revealed the truck buried to the frame in the mud in the middle of the road!

In the shadow of the Jeep headlights about three car lengths on down the road a Volkswagen Beetle facing the opposite direction as the truck was also buried in the middle of the road up to its tweeting little exhausts. It didn’t have a frame so the pan of the engine had stopped any further sinking. Dan put the Jeep in neutral and left it running while he got out to survey the situation. Rex got out of the Volkswagen and Richard got out of the truck and greeted Dan. They were joined by Bugsy (Tom) and Dennis who lived in the only house on the road. We all went to the same school. Rex was so glad to see me he came up and shook my hand vigorously. If we hadn’t been high school buddies in the sixties he probably would have hugged me. Dan walked around the car to figure out the best way to go about liberating it from the mud. As he got to the front of the car he noticed Rex’s girlfriend in the front seat. She looked his way briefly before she averted her eyes. He knew she was so embarrassed about her situation and the fact that the next day it would be all over school how she and Rex had to be rescued from lover’s lane. Dan suppressed a grin and walked on. After conferring with the Richard and the guys and walking around the road they decided on a plan of action. Dan backed up to the Volkswagen at an angle so he wouldn’t hit the truck. The chain was attached and he slowly pulled till the chain was tight. The object was to pull the car out not jerk it apart.

When the chain was tight they signaled Rex to put the car in reverse and slowly let out on the clutch. Dan rode the clutch till he saw the car move backward then released it and gave the Jeep some throttle. He couldn’t resist hammering the throttle just once to throw a rooster tail of mud all over the back of the Volkswagen. He dragged the car in front of the truck onto solid ground and stopped. Rex got out and thanked him again. I think at that moment he would have named his first born after Dan. Thanks to the Jeep they left a trail of mud for miles in the now rainy night but they were happy and free again. Dan’s attention turned to the truck. It was much heavier than the car and just as stuck. They hooked to the front and pulled and then hooked to the back but the Jeep had met its match. Richard had to call his Dad to bring a tractor to pull him out. Dan didn’t like to leave his buddy in the mud but he had no choice. His Dad would be along shortly and get him out.

As he drove home the rain increased. He was getting chilled. He had to look around the windshield to see and the rain smarted as it hit him in the face. He left a trail of mud almost all the way home but he still had a grin on his face. What a story he would have to tell his Grand kids!