Hauling Dogs

Hauling Dogs

This story is so good that I didn’t have to make it up.

I’m staying with my Mom this week and she is regaling me with stories. The following may be my favorite:

When our family moved to Dry Creek in 1960, we had one vehicle, a beat-up GMC truck.  My Mom, who has always had a travel gene, would load Colleen and I, plus some neighbor kids, in the back of the truck and head out on some adventure.

Of course, as we loaded into the truck bed, we brought our dogs along.

I remember the joy of riding in the back of a truck, standing above the cab with the wind and in your hair. It was wonderful, crowded together against the cab, kids laughing, and dogs barking.

Momma, with this ragtag crew in the truck bed, pulled into the parking lot at Harper’s Grocery at the Dry Creek crossroads.

Mr. Ryan Harper, the store proprietor, walked to the truck, nodded at the truck bed and said to Mom, “Mary, I want to warn you about carrying those dogs in the back of your truck. They’ll get used to it and follow you off.”

After giving his input, Mr. Ryan returned to the store, and we kids unloaded and went inside for a cold RC.

I laugh at this story and cringe at how kids rode in truck beds at the time, leaning out the side for a better view,  handing our feet off the tailgate.

I am surprised any of us survived.

When the Louisiana Legislature finally passed a law banning children from riding in open truck beds, we knew a time in history had passed.

And that time needed to pass, it was downright dangerous hauling kids in the back of a truck.

But one Dry Creek old-timer scoffed at the new law, “Next thing they’ll be passing a law that you can’t carry dogs in the back of our truck.”

I don’t think they’ve passed that law yet.

But Ryan Harper would’ve voted for it.