Since I'm now trying to include a pickup truck in this series every week or so, today seemed like a good time to go with the '73 Ford Courier. The Courier was Ford's desperate ingenious response to the popularity of the small Datsun and Toyota pickups that were starting to show up in large numbers starting in the late 1960s; built by Mazda and styled to look something like a Ford F-series truck, the Courier was a fairly dependable little truck and sold well.

Looking at this truck, I can't understand why nobody now sells a truly small pickup in this country these days. People didn't buy little trucks because they couldn't afford big ones- they bought them because they wanted a little truck in the first place.


This one even comes equipped with a vintage Six-Pac truck camper! I sure hope it's full of black light posters and Primo Beer!


Now here's a blast from the East Bay past: a Harvey's RVs sticker. Harvey's was by the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland's Fruitvale district and Harvey's daughter was my classmate in high school; when I went off to college, I discovered that my school had an on-campus trailer park with just $75/month rent (and no inspections whatsoever, meaning you could- and, in most cases, did- build your own tarpaper shack next to your trailer), so of course I headed straight to Harvey. $500 later, I was the proud owner of a '66 Roadrunner camping trailer, which was to be my beloved (if leaky) home during my undergrad years.


I'm pretty sure the person who owns this truck also owns the camper shell-equipped Rabbit diesel pickup we saw in the early days of this series.

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