I’d been talking really big about how I wanted one of these. One of my big dreams was that it could haul all the kiddies in nasty weather. Other army trucks don’t do this so well. We have an M37 and really, it only hauls one passenger with any comfort at all. A little late though, the kids are now either in or graduated from college.

Sigh..

Long story short, I’d kept my eye out for years watching for old WC53 carryalls to come up for sale. Always there was some reason not to buy. Too expensive, too far away, no time, too far gone. Then one came up “I don’t want tire kickers. If you want to see pix, eMail me.”  I eMailed on a whim because I’d noticed it was in my state and, I did really want to see what it looked like. He wrote back, “Don’t bother with pix, I live in the town next to you.” Maybe 20-30 minute drive.

So we ( Julie & I ) went and had a look. My secret hope was that it would be too far gone and I could pass without guilt. Turns out the owner & I had actually met before. And, the truck looked better than I’d feared. The ball was in my court. I could say, “Too much cash.” but really, for the current market, it wasn’t. Julie and I had to go to lunch and “talk this over”.

The lunch talk consisted of Julie asking “Would you feel worse if you bought it? Or, some one else got it first?”

“Well.. Id actually feel worse if some one else got it.”

“So, go buy it!”

I called and bought it.

Then Julie christened it “Franklin”. (All our cars & boats acquire names in this family.)