I've mentioned before that I was raised in the city but moved to a small town when I was about 14.....Now one summer a friend of mine and me got to use a Volkswagen buggy(a Volkswagen with its top cut out,stripped down to the frame almost and some knobby tires) that belonged to another friend of ours.....We took that thing everywhere in the mountains and boy I was hooked, I had to have something to get me back in them mountains.....Well buggy's are nice and all but you have to kinda drive them fast to get up hills and such and I'm more of a ease along in first gear kinda fellow....ease along and watch for wildlife, flowers and little hidden hollows where moonshine stills might be.....

And I found the answer to my dilemma, a Jeep....Now not just any Jeep, you see Willys had sold out to American Motors the year before and in 1972 American Motors produced their first Jeep under their name.....Now this Jeep had everything the old Jeeps had but this one had a V8 motor, a big V8 motor and for the first time you could order your Jeep with all kinds of extras, 8,000lb. winches that if you hooked it to the top of a tree it'll pull you and the Jeep right to the top of the tree, coming down might be a bit tricky though but you get my meaning....You could get these wheel locks that you get out and turn to lock'em so if you didn't want to hook your winch to the top of the tree, you could just put it in 4 wheel drive low, turn your hubs to lock'em  and just drive up the tree, again in the interest of full disclosure, coming down the tree was a bit tricky.....:)

They offered heavy duty this and heavy duty that and a roll bar for when you rolled the Jeep over, why if you rolled that thing it wouldn't even muss up your hair.....:)

In a word fellow gardeners, IT HAD EVERYTHING......Now when you're riding back in the mountains sometimes these old pulp wood roads run out and that's when you need a chain saw to cut your way to another logging road or just make your own(this talk of chain saws and cutting roads where there weren't none was as you can imagine, before I was into my "green" and "environmental" period......:)

So I guess you know where this story is going, I got to get me one of those and I did.....:) I special ordered me one with everything but the kitchen sink and ordered it in Canary Yellow, so if I got out and walked in the mountains and got lost or turned around it would be easier to find my Jeep again.....I was the not only the first one in Piedmont or Borden Springs to have one of these new Jeeps, I think I had the only Canary Yellow one east of the Mississippi...Canary Yellow Jeeps might have been big in L.A or San Francisco but I had the only in Alabama, FOR SURE......:)

So let's sum up here for a moment.....I got about  the most powerful Jeep on the planet, it's got a 8,000lb winch on the front, heavy duty springs and off road package, a roll bar, a come-along, a chain saw, extra cable and hooks,......OK, lets quit pussy footing around, I had a Jeep that could go ANYWHERE.......:) Now one caveat here, you fellow gardeners got to remember this is 1972, there wasn't all the after market equipment and extras for Jeeps back then, what you got is what you had more or less....Today everything is well different....Lord they got Jeeps with big screen TV's in'em.....:)

So before I tell you anymore about my 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that will go anywhere' let me tell you about a moonshining buddy of mine named Arthur....Now Arthur ain't never done anything but make moonshine most of his life....I asked him onetime whether he'd ever had a real job and he looked at me like what kinda of question was that and said matter-of- factly, "I made moonshine, that WAS MY JOB"......:)

Now Arthur lived way, way back in the mountains and running behind his house was a creek, a pretty big creek, now back in the late 60's and early 70's around where we lived the government started building what they called 'water sheds',  for flood control and recreation....What it was they would come in and build a big earthen dam and back up the water in the creek and form a lake of sorts back up the old creek bed....Now when they build these water sheds they bulldozed everything behind the dam on both sides of the creek where the water would eventually back up....I mean they cut every tree, bulldozed out every stump, it was clean as a whistle where the water shed was going to be....now this water shed behind Authur's had  what they called 'Seven Fords', that meant there was 7 crossings of the creek between his house and another creek that the one for the watershed came into.....If you was from up in there everyone knew about the 'Seven Fords' behind Arthurs house...

About the time they was building the water shed behind Authur's it was just my "good luck" I bought the 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere'....:)  So 'the most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' I had ordered from American Motors came into the Jeep place in Atlanta, they called me and so I went with a friend to pick it up...We left about 5 o'clock in the morning and when the doors opened at the Jeep place we were standing there all smiles waiting to drive my 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' off the car lot and into HISTORY......:)

We get back home and first thing I want to do is take my Jeep down 'Seven Fords' from the first ford and then cross all 7 fords coming out on the back side of the dam, drive over it and come out behind Authur's house and surprise him with my new 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' ...Yes pile old Authur in the back of my new Jeep and take him for the ride of a lifetime.....or so I thought that was what I was going to do.....:)

Well I cross the first ford and everything is just peachy, I don't even spin a tire going across....then the second ford same thing, third the same, fourth the same, fifth the same then the sixth ford.....oops......Well they had left a tree trunk, a big one across the ford when bulldozing and it blocked the ford, hey no problem fellow gardeners I just take my 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere'  and drive up the creek a ways and by-pass the big tree blocking the ford, after all fellow gardeners let me remind you one more time in case you forgot, I got 'the most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere'....

Well all goes well I'm driving down the creek, it ain't too deep about half way up my tires or bit more....then all of a sudden I start spinning my tires a bit....now I let off the gas cause spinning tires don't get you nowhere...I get out of the Jeep and see what has happened, I have drove right into sandbar that was hid under the water...Well my goodness fellow gardeners that ain't no problem I'm in 4 wheel drive high but I'll just put it in 4 wheel drive low and crawl right out of there.....NO I WON'T...My 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' won't move not an inch even in 4 wheel drive low....Well my goodness fellow gardeners what's to worry about, I got an 8,000 winch and I'll tie to something and be out of this fix in a jiffy.....I look around for something to tie my cable too and you know what?.....Just when I think the government can't do a darn thing right well they sure nuff cleared the creek side up good, there ain't a thing left to tie to that the cable can reach.....and my chain saw?..If I thought cutting through water with my saw would have helped my situation I'd have tried it......:)

And for the worst news of all fellow gardeners, I notice something else, my 'most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' is sinking slowly into the sandbar, slowly but sinking never the less.....I see water start to come over the hood of the Jeep and I think, good Lord have mercy, I got a brand new Jeep,  'the most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' and I'm going to have to come up here on the weekends to visit it still stuck in the creek at best and at worst come up and show people where the Jeep I had for not even 24 hours is sunk and buried and disappeared into a sandbar.....:)

Well there's nothing to do but walk out and think what in the world I can do to recover my Jeep...(notice I'm not referring to it as  'the most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere' anymore, hey that sucker is sinking and it looks like it can go anywhere alright, anywhere but a sandbar.......:)

So my buddy and I start walking out towards the dam and Authur's house...Now remember they're still working on the watershed and after crossing the 7th ford on FOOT I see and I hear a bulldozer working on the backside of the dam, HALLELUJAH BROTHER I MIGHT BE SAVED AT THE LAST MINUTE.......:)

Now I got a brand new $3,200 Jeep sitting sinking in a sandbar and getting ready to disappear, so anything this guy wants to charge me to drive that bulldozer back to the 6th ford and pull my Jeep out is going to have to be alright with me.....I mean if he charges me $3,199 I guess I'm going to have to let him do it.....So looks like I'm going to either have NO Jeep or a $6,399 Jeep.......:)

The guy driving the bulldozer looks like anyone would look at two guys walking out of the mountains and says," you folks on foot?...You haven't walked all the way down the Seven Fords on foot have you?".....I want to say to him, oh not all the way, just till I sank my Jeep in a sandbar......:) But what I do say is this,"I got a proposition for you" and the bulldozer operator says, "what's that my friend?"....(I'm glad this guy is thinking maybe I'm his friend cause if he pulls out my Jeep from that sandbar he's not only going to be my friend but my SAVIOR.......:)

I say to him, "I got me a brand new $3,200 Jeep sinking in a sandbar right now even as we speak, its back at the 6th ford.....I'm in a pickle as you can see and I need help, what I need is for you to take me and my buddy here on your bulldozer back to the 6th ford and pull my Jeep outta the sandbar before it sinks all the way to China".....:)

"Now I tell you what buddy boy, you can charge me anything you want up to $3,199 and I'll have no choice but to pay you, cause that's what I got in it....But its up to you, if you can do it, I'd be beholden to ya"....

Well he looks at me and starts to laugh(which kinda hit me wrong cause why was he laughing when I was about to start crying?..:))....."OK", he says, "get up on the dozer and lets see what we can do about your sinking Jeep".....Lord have mercy, I'm so happy I'd kiss this guy but well that's just not done in the mountains where I'm from, but lets just say I was tickled to death and leave it at that......:) We start back to the 6th ford and when its in sight there's my Jeep in the sandbar with only a corner of the roll bar above water...I manage to pull the cable of the winch out while its under water, no easy trick I can tell ya.....and hook it up to the dozer....He pulls that thing right out of the sand bar and right up the side of the creek bed and onto beautiful, wonderful, magnificent dry land......:)

Now here's the part you ain't going to believe....That Jeep, 'the most powerful Jeep on the planet that will go anywhere but down a sandbar' cranked right up...even the bulldozer guy couldn't believe it......Now I ask him what I owed him, and this is what he said, "buddy I've seen some folks in a pickle in my time but you beat'em all, I just wouldn't have the heart to charge you a thing"....and he didn't.....Now I got his name and I knew some of his kin folks and a couple of weeks later I got in touch with him and asked him to come to town with his family to my father's store( my family had a clothing store in this small town since 1911 almost 80 years in business) he said, "Well OK"....Now he shows up when he said he was going to and my father and me shook his hand and thanked him again for his help.  The bulldozer guy was with his wife and 2 children, I just want to say one more thing and I'm finished with this little story fellow gardeners,....When that guy left my father’s clothing store, that man, his wife and 2 small children, they didn't have to buy a stitch of clothing for a year or more I bet......I had the 'the most powerful Jeep on the planet that would go anywhere, well anywhere but down a sandbar" and my new buddy with the bulldozer,him, his wife and 2 small children were the best dressed family in Calhoun county.......:)

Paul from Alabama