Riding with the tailgate down

I saw an old green truck today that reminded me of my childhood days. Our neighbors who lived a few doors down had an old green truck. They used to drive it out to the farm. Now, we all lived in town on the same block, but you see, our neighbors had family that lived about 10 miles out of town, on a farm. We would all jump in the back of the pickup with the tailgate down and off Mr. Johnson would drive. Most generally it was at night. Sure, the tailgate was down and there we would sit with our legs dangling over the edge while Mr. Johnson drove 55 miles per hour down the highway.

Something that kids do not get the opportunity to experience nowadays. What a great feeling, yeah we probably tossed stuff off the back and we waved at the car behind us, and they waved back at us thinking those kids sure are having a fun time. Mr. Johnson never minded what we were doing, he just drove. I remember his denim overalls and plaid long sleeve shirt, and his arm hanging out the window, and he always had a smile on his face, never taking his eyes off the road. "You kids be careful now" he's tell us. We would yell through the back window, Mr. Johnson, put the brakes on...and he would tap the brakes and they would light up red and our shoes looked red and our legs looked red, and we laughed and laughed.

Yep, those were good times.