Love and Four-Wheelers

ROCKWALL, TX (Feb. 8, 2015) I value my man-card, always have, and I’ve worked hard to keep it. Yet, there was a moment in my life over 20 years ago where it was nearly revoked. Now once I explain the situation, I’m sure you’ll pardon it, at least, I hope … So, here goes…

CONFESSION: I sold my four-wheeler on behalf of my bride to be.

I can hear the howls of “sacrilege” from outdoorsmen as they’ve read that sentence. I’m sure I’ll even get emails demanding an immediate withdrawal, or a notice putting me on “man-dom probation.”

All I can plead is insanity; I mean, love is crazy, right?

It wasn’t like I wanted to sell it or that my beloved demanded I leave the field and join her for weekend manis and pedis. She didn’t rewrite our vows so that I would leave all fishing, hunting and cleave to her. In fact, Angie loved my old Honda Fourtrax as much as I did, giggled as we climbed hills and splattered mud and she loved it when we tore out across open fields.

My parents had a lake house in northern Tennessee and I’d use my four-wheeler to drag deer stands into the field or even ferry other hunters out to the goose blind. There’re even old pictures of me with my mom all covered in mud after she accepted an invite for a little all-family goose hunt. I steered toward every puddle in that cotton field to get her a little extra messy. Then, when I dated Angie, and it looked serious enough, we took her to the lake with us and she and I rode that four-wheeler everywhere, enjoyed all sorts of adventures in the woods and the sandbars.

As our wedding date approached, we were rich on love and lean on cash. Angie worked all sorts of double shifts to help pay for the wedding and I was finishing up my degree and working as a youth pastor for pennies. I didn’t have a ton but I was bound and determined to give us the best honeymoon possible. The only thing I had of any worth, beside my truck, was the Honda. I reasoned that since I didn’t have a trailer to tow it, it would merely sit in storage, and ultimately, love demands a sacrifice, and what greater sacrifice than a southern boy selling his ATV?

We honeymooned in Hot Springs, the Ozark Mountains, and Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, and after we got back we began our life together and soon moved out to a little house on 30 acres of woods. Each morning, a herd of deer crossed from behind our house to the front yard, a cruel irony. Funny, even Angie would reminisce about the four-wheeler and wish we had it back so we could ride the trails behind our home.

Boy, now that’s quite a lady! One I’d sell a hundred ATV’s for, for sure, so, give me the address and I’ll mail in my card, for my girl is definitely worth it.

By Blue Ribbon News guest columnist Scott Gill of Rockwall, a teacher, coach and author of Goliath Catfish. Follow Scott’s blog at scotttgill.tumblr.com and read all of his “Front Porch Ramblings” at BlueRibbonNews.com.

  love and four-wheelers, Rockwall, scott gill