Cup of Tee

©Last week, it was a little after midnight and I was passing through Meridian, Idaho. I thought to myself, "I could go for a salad." The Winco grocery store is open 24 hours-a-day, so I decided to stop at the one on Chinden and Linder roads. As I pulled into the parking lot, I decided to park my old Ranger pickup away from the main entrance under a street light. The truck was sitting by itself when I walked into the store.

I got a chef salad and, of course, I had to have Ranch dressing as well. I went back to my pickup. As I got in, a couple in another Ranger pickup the same color as mine pulled in front of me. I guess I was parked in the secluded Ranger section.

The wife said to her husband, "Look Honey, we are parked in front of a mirror. That truck looks almost exactly like ours." The husband said to me as he went in front of his truck, "If you decide you want to sell that truck, I could use some of the parts for mine." I responded, "This one has over 400 thousand on it." As he headed for the store he said, "Mine has 215 thousand on it."

As I sat eating my salad off in the distance from the store, I looked the guy's pickup over. His hood had a dent similar to mine in the front. It was same faded, pealed blue as mine. Holding his hood was a ratchet strap from one side to the other (mine had a broken hood latch

by Tee Hurd

from where I hit an elk). The other fellow's right front fender mashed. To my surprise, both front bumpers were good, and lights and blinker coverers were good as well. Both units had good tires and matching rims.

The tailgate was on the other pickup but I wondered if the latch was broken like minehard to tell at a glance. I'm sure the guy left his keys in the ignition knowing no one was going to steal the Ranger.

I could assume there nothing wrong with the radio in mirrored truck because the antenna looked to be in good shape, similar to mine. And, oh yeah... his heater probably worked good. Both pickups had a crack in the windshield about four inches above the dash, all the way across. Mine only broke when I fixed the heater, which is a really good one.

A gentleman is a nice new Ford had parked and went shopping while I was sitting there. He looked at both pickups with a double take. Then he looked again as he left. The two little Ranger pickup owners were getting all they could their pickups. The guy in the new Ford either wished he had one like ours, or he remembered when he had one.

This my “Cup of Tee”, a salad and exclusive parking.