I am not a luddite.  No way.  From my perch from just about anywhere on the globe I can make any computer scream for mercy.  I’ve used MS-DOS, PC-DOS, DR-DOS Windows 3.0 Windows XP, Mac OSX, Linux you name it.  With my iPod firmly embedded in my pocket, I can listen to a podcast of my favourite agricultural economist any hour of the day.  I have broadcast radio commentary from my desktop many times.  Converting my words into an MP3 file is like breathing another breath.  However, I drive a 1984 Dodge Ram pickup truck and the last time I checked it was 2007.

In a way it’s kind of funny to a lot of people.  However I live a bit of a double life.  The people who see me using technology aren’t a part of my other life on the ground with dirt embedded firmly under my fingernails.  My editor and friend John Gardner shudders sometimes when he calls my cell phone and I tell him I’m changing a bearing.  However, he doesn’t think twice about calling me with a computer technology question.  Still I drive that old Dodge Ram truck.  I’m sure many people wonder what’s up with that.

Simply put I don’t get it.  Transportation to me is getting from A to B.  However, I know it’s not like that for most everybody else.  I’ve got good friends with Porsches and BMW’s.  I’ve got friends on the ground of Canadian agriculture whose Ford F-150’s are so stylish I wonder what they do when they get dust on them.  Surely some of them are iPod ready.  However, I drive a 1984 Dodge Ram pickup truck.

I’m just not part of that economy.  My very good friend who owns the Porsche loves to go to the North American Auto Show at Cobo Hall in Detroit, which comes around every January.  He salivates at the thought of going.  He took me once.  I was bored out of my mind.  Didn’t get it.  Now my buddy tells me after the fact how he went to the auto show with somebody else and how much he enjoyed it.

However, time moves on and so must I.  I renewed my sticker for my 23-year-old truck the other day and when I did I figured it would be for the last time.  Through the years I’ve repaired and cajoled, but last fall I knew that was over.  After 23 years I’d have to make my way back into an automobile showroom.

So here I am it is 2007 and I arrive in several automobile showrooms over the last week.  The last time I shopped for a truck Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister and   Ronald Reagan was President.  I had me the neatest newest record player.  However, enough with the 1980’s reminiscence.  Auto showrooms in 2007 have completely changed.  They are selling trucks, which I can’t even recognize.

It’s kind of discombobulating.  I don’t ask the right questions.  I don’t want air conditioning.  I want a regular cab and long box.  I want little triangular windows embedded in the driver and passenger windows.  It gets worse when the 20 something sales women who shows me the vehicle opens the truck door.  It’s like I’m peering into Rodeo Dr in Beverly Hills California.  Trucks I look at are so full of fanciful gadgets and do dads I recoil.  Where can a workingman buy a truck these days?  All the salespeople tell me they never sell anything as stripped down as I want.

When I walk into some auto dealerships it’s a bit like walking into “truck Disneyland”.  23 years ago I wrote a cheque for $9000 and drove away.  Now, I’m told hardly anybody does that.  In fact the car companies are in cahoots with their own finance arm.  The rush is on to get you to sign up for so much per week or month.  Of course you can put a 2 or a 3 in front of that $9000 dollars now.  These aren’t my father’s prices.  Maybe, just maybe this new showroom world of 2007 has passed me by.

However, I don’t think I can cajole my 1984 Dodge Ram for greater purpose.  So each day that goes by, I’m one step closer to wandering into another dealership to get that proverbial deal.  I need something, which is the 2007 version of my 1984-rolling anvil.

Nonetheless I’m not a luddite.  I think some of these salespersons might be a bit taken aback with my story.  However when I pull my card out I’m sure they don’t get to many customers with a web site named after them.  I just hope my next truck lasts me another 23 years.