
     
     
     In Search Of 4 Wheel Drive

                                             By Gary Bryant


          I had to have one.  My  neighbor has two.  Everybody seems 
      to want four wheel  drive (4WD).  You've seen the 4 clumped 
      together with a  capital W and D in classified ads. If you 
      didn't know  before, you do now. 4WD means four wheel drive.

          People come up with all kinds of reasons to get 4WD.  
      My  brother-in law is no exception.   "I need it to  get 
      to work in the winter," he says.  My brother-in-law doesn't 
      work in the winter, or any other season that I  can recall.

          "You never know!" This was uttered by my  seventy-eight 
     year old uncle who bequeathed last year's 4WD to some 
     unsuspecting offspring, while he pursues  the latest model.
        
           I suppose "you never know" comes in handy quite often.  
     That handy reason, was the cause of an engineless Cessna 172 
     being stuffed into my  basement for six months.

           Still, I had to have four wheel drive. New ones were 
     out of the question.  They wanted more for a new Jeep than 
     triple by-pass  surgery for all six of my ailing aunts.
            
           So I scanned the classified ads.  Even here, vehicles  
     adorned with the nomenclature "4WD" commanded a much higher price.  
     I just wanted an old beater. Something to carry me up and 
     down an old  mountain road.  Something that would  pull me 
     out of the death trap of a blinding blizzard.  A vehicle 
     reliable and strong enough to get me out of mud soaked 
     ditches and rain saturated driveways. 
     
          I looked. I searched. I finally found the answer. A 
     tow truck.  

