The Beginnings

I'd like to say that it was an fj45 that my papa had in the barn under a tarp or an fj40 that my dad tooled around to work or an fj55 that my brother continuously got stuck. None of that is true.  My papa didn't own an fj45, in fact he was a GMC fan. My dad once owned an old Blazer, it was an old postal truck, but no fj40. My brother was, actually a fan of the muscle car variety.

My introduction to LandCruisers came about when I wasn't really paying attention. I grew up wanting Mustangs. My older brother had a 73 and 65 before he was 16. Me, being 4yrs younger than my idle, I remember summers waking up to him sitting in his car and pissing off our neighbor. He would sit in the car, listening to the radio, and mashing the gas pedal. He wasn't 16 yet, remember. The car didn't leave the gravel driveway, more specifically it didn't leave the yard. I remember the dead grass beneath the car. I would walk barefoot over the gravel - couldn't do that now - and me and my buddy Will would pile in and listen to the radio with him. My eyes would squint as I walked out in the morning. Missouri in the summer, damn it was humid. We'd just sit in the car and roast.

We lived in a small town end to end it was a mile long, so we probably could've gotten away with taking it out, but a 302 with busted exhaust wasn't very quiet.  It was dark and before we got home it was already known that we took it out. I think 5-6  of us piled in to the 73. He put it in gear, idled out of the driveway, and didn't turn on the lights until we were out of the driveway. I remember only 2 things: 1. the green dash lights were pretty much useless and 2. yea, we got in trouble or more accurately he got in trouble.

Fast forward to 10-12 years. I have never owned a Mustang. He's had more of them than I can care to recall now, but me, nope. I'm more of a Toyota guy. I'm still a Ford Fan, but I've got a soft spot for reliability and resale value. My obsession is more cars in general rather than one car. I check the blogs and magazine sites every day - multiple times daily, it's really a bit too much if I'm being honest. And let's get down to it, I can remember thinking about LandCruisers while in undergrad.

I spent so much time avoiding what I was supposed to do in college, which was actually read the chapters that were assigned and do the work in the first couple weeks rather than the last couple hours. It was the idea of something different. It was the idea of having something classy and something I could take cross country. And I love the fact that it holds its value when kept in good condition.

It only takes credit to get on a new expensive truck. I want to have something different. I want something that I can park next to a new Land Rover and not look out of place. I want something that I can take camping, skiing, haul the dogs in (and kids in the future), and drive 1000 miles back home. A Land Cruiser is the truck for me.