There comes a stage in everyone's life when they like to reference everything to when they were younger. I remember my grandparents making mention of times when they were younger. I suppose it just comes with age. I find myself now arriving at this crossroads in my life. Many have a "midlife" crisis and fight the feelings by trying to draw back physically what has seemingly slipped away. Others just go with the flow and do what I am doing - "Remember(ing) Back When ..."

I remember back when, as a small child, my dad took me along to look at a 1955 Chevy station wagon. As a small child, I was so caught up in the amount of space available to crawl around inside the vehicle. I was just barely nine, but I could see visions of how wonderful it was going to be to have such a "fine" vehicle. My dad had always had trucks, this would be our "first" car that I could remember. I know it must have been difficult for my dad to "negotiate" with the dealer, while a nine year old kid hung around waiting to see if he would get to soon ride home in the "back."

As luck would have it, dad purchased the car. I remember crawling over the back seat and sitting perched on the spare tire lying in the cargo area. I was in "hog heaven" ..... until .....

Let me preface this by giving you a little historical weather and geographical data: It was a dry, DRY, hot, HOT, summer day in July. We lived on a dirt and gravel road (more dirt than gravel). We lived six miles from any paved road. It goes without mentioning the station wagon wasn't equipped with factory air-conditioning. We had been using the "2/60" (two windows down at 60 miles per hour) air-conditioning method that most people used at this time until we got to the gravel road.

The moment we hit the gravel (remember, it's mostly dirt), we were inundated with dust. By the time we reached home, not only could you write your name on any surface inside the car, the combination of dust and sweat made us all look more like gingerbread men than humans. We only kept the station wagon five years, dad was glad when it was gone - he got a "new" truck to replace it.

Ever wonder why you don't see many station wagons anymore? Now they call them by another name - LUV's (Luxury Utility Vehicles), SUV's (Sport Utility Vehicles), and "Mini" Vans. I don't care what they call them - I still remember the dust. I drive a truck!