Yeah, those were the days!!! An old pick up truck with gramps and a few of his pals up front driving, (and knocking back the belts!!), to a way out in the sticks county dump, 2 or 3 of us kiddies in the back bed with the garbage cans AND our .22 Rifles held proud as we dreamed about those damn ‘dump rats’ that were gonna be ‘red mist’ very shortly!! Those truly were the days huh?
I remember riding around in the back of a truck with at least ten other people including adults one July4th. The adults were shooting bottle rockets from the back of the truck. These were upstanding citizens who were well off financially, attended church every time the doors were open, and just normal people. I would not even call them rednecks. Well, some of them. This was in the 80s. I was unaware at the time that there were places loaded with nanny-staters who would have wanted us arrested. I confess that my parents did not know what I was doing though my mother trusted that I would be ok with these people. My father trusted no one, so he would have had a cow. LOL. Good thing he never knew! It was illegal to shoot fireworks in the city. In general, the cops looked the other way unless there were complaints.
And if it was raining hard...they’d put you up front, to sit on their lap, or even stand if your chin could reach over the dashboard....all the while smokin’ Camels.
Maybe if they stopped some where along the way, to get ammo, more beer or smokes, they left you in the truck [w/the motor running]...and one of the more bold of the kids, slid behind the steering wheel *pretending* to drive.
Hmmmmmmmm... is there a statute of limitations on this stuff? How did we ever survive.
Or headed out to the river to spend most of the day drowning worms at the end of a fishing pole.
Reminds me of a joke: Three fellas were leaving their favorite backroads tavern, one of them very drunk and the other two mostly so. "Let's help him into the back of the pickem'up truck, Bubba" said Slim. Slim replied "He's too drunk and he might fall out and get hurt. Let him drive!"