{"id":2325,"date":"2012-04-01T00:44:50","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T20:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blogblog\/?p=2325"},"modified":"2012-04-07T05:02:46","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T01:02:46","slug":"the-life-passing-of-big-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/the-life-passing-of-big-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life & Passing of “Big Blue”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBig Blue Whale\u201d was his full name; we all called him “Big Blue” for short.\u00a0\u00a0 A pale blue-green, 1965 Ford pick-up, \u00be ton sporting a 351 engine (coveted by mechanics knowing the value of this type of engine), Big Blue was \u201cborn and bred\u201d in Georgia and made his way up to Alaska in the early 80\u2019s driven by the original owner, an airplane mechanic who kept this babe in great shape.\u00a0 Big Blue was happiest humming down the highway at 85mph best with a ton of gravel – his engine “purred!” \u00a0 I bought Big Blue in July 1985 for my landscape company when he was just 20 years old.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was love at first sight!<\/p>\n

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Firefighters put out the last remaining life of "Big Blue" - photo by Ursala Hudson<\/p><\/div>\n

27 years later, Big Blue passed away today on April Fool’s Day.\u00a0 When my son-in-law was going up the hill towards home, suddenly the truck died and when he jumped out to check what happened, suddenly the engine began to smoke and burst into flames – luckily Chris had not had the chance to open the hood!!!\u00a0 911 came to the rescue and put out the last life of Big Blue.\u00a0 When all had died down, the fire chief examined the engine and showed us the broken fuel line figuring this was what started the fire.<\/p>\n

The passing of Big Blue was very sad; for me it was the completion of an era allowed to live only once.\u00a0 As I mentioned earlier, when I first saw this truck many years ago, it was “love at first sight.”\u00a0 My personal experience of “love at first sight” is a feeling of deep gratitude upon the sight of something, or someone, or somewhere.\u00a0 This feeling has nothing to do with want, lust, desire, must have; it is full body experience of being in awe, feeling a deep appreciation of what is before me.\u00a0 I loved this machine at first sight in 1985.<\/p>\n

I was a landscape gardener; boss of my \u201cKahtahah Landscape Gardeners\u201d, every season I\u2019d hire a new group of adventurous young folk who didn\u2019t mind working hard in the Southeastern Alaskan weather from April 1st<\/sup> through October 31st<\/sup> in wind, sleet, snow flurries, rain (of course!), and yet any fine, rare sunny day, we were out and about, we soaked up the shine, all of it!\u00a0 Kept in lean shape sportin\u2019 mighty fine tans, we did, yessirreee!<\/p>\n

Instead of buying a company truck, I rented one from June Dawson\u2019s vehicle rental company.\u00a0 (And if any of you living in Juneau remember June, she was a hoot \u2013 one of the happiest redheads I\u2019ve ever known \u2013 a generous woman who implored me to dig up the best peatmossy loamy soil on this side of the planet! (which happened to be located in what is now the Lemon Creek Industrial area where COSTCO and all those other brand names hang out together\u2026we hand-dug truckloads and truckloads to the Sealaska Corporation plaza\u2019s garden beds \u2013 there were nights I couldn\u2019t sleep cuz I had threats by passer-bys who were coveting the soil \u2013 I was never sure if I\u2019d return to work the next day and find the piles gone, so we quickly worked the soil into the poor soil already existing at Sealaska.<\/p>\n

(Why did I rent a truck instead of buying one?\u00a0 I was waiting for the right one to come around.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want just any ole truck; I wanted a specific type.\u00a0 And the moment I wished for it out loud, not even 5 minutes later, there he was at the garbage dump in all his fine glory!\u00a0 Hallelujiah!)<\/p>\n

My 1985 crew members included 5 neighbors.\u00a0 They had just moved to Juneau from Nebraska and Kansas, looking for the \u201cAlaskan experience\u201d and were out looking for a job.\u00a0 Being the kind of neighbor that I am, I asked them if they were interested in working for me.\u00a0 They jumped for it.\u00a0 One day, the five of us were jammed packed into the cab of the truck heading to the garbage dump to look for an old refigerator to use as a smokehouse.\u00a0 One crew member asked:\u00a0 \u201cHey Clarissa, when are you going to buy your own truck?\u201d\u00a0 They all chimed in:\u00a0 \u201cYeah, you\u2019ve got to get your own truck, how come you gotta be so picky, like what kind of truck do you want?\u201d<\/p>\n

I replied:\u00a0 \u201cI want an old truck, one from the 60\u2019s, can\u2019t be older than \u201969.\u00a0 I want a Chevy or Ford pick-up, you know, the kind with the rounded fronts with a big bed, not one of those \u00bd ton, but \u00be ton.\u00a0 I want him in excellent condition\u2026I\u2019m waiting for the right one!\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s reply:\u00a0 \u201coh golly, that\u2019s wishful thinking, where you gonna find one in Juneau, those types are rare, especially those without any rust in excellent shape\u2026!?\u201d<\/p>\n

Within 5 minutes of the conversation, as we had come around the corner, there at the dump, was “Big Blue!” – the owners were visiting the dump too!\u00a0 My crew members and I gawked “Clarissa!\u00a0 There’s YOUR truck!” — and sure enough, there was a “For Sale” sign on the rear window!<\/p>\n

The rest is 27 years of history and fantastic memories.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cBig Blue Whale\u201d was his full name; we all called him “Big Blue” for short.\u00a0\u00a0 A pale blue-green, 1965 Ford pick-up, \u00be ton sporting a 351 engine (coveted by mechanics knowing the value of this type of engine), Big Blue was \u201cborn and bred\u201d in Georgia and made his way up to Alaska in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,65,19,55,4],"tags":[172],"class_list":["post-2325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travels-adventures","category-my-two-cents-and-then-some","category-honoring-others","category-family-friends-relatives","category-northwest-coast-art-shows-and-art-exhibits","tag-1965-ford-351-pick-up"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2333,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325\/revisions\/2333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarissarizal.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}