Your pickup may be your most notable feature

People are so complex as to be impossible to completely describe, but we need to differentiate them. We use names, faces, and the way they walk, talk, and dress to keep track of which is who and so forth.

But these features are all most telling only when you are in close contact with the human you wish to identify. The person-density is low on the Plains, and distance is significant such that walking is not much use as a common form of transportation.

You don’t pass by people on the sidewalk, you pass their vehicles on the road.

And so it is that your personal mode of transportation is more notable and unique than possibly even your face.

There are the obvious differentiations: make, model, color, and the sound of the exhaust. But those are not enough to tell the many white, four-door, Fords that were what was on the lot when the old pickup finally broke down for good. Or the even more farm-common single-cab with a flatbed and a cake-feeder on the back.

You learn to see what welder they have in the back and the color and configuration of their toolbox. You know that so and so has his hose-reel on the left and that good ol’ boy has his mounted on the right. There is the type and condition of the grill-guard, and the shape one’s bumpers tend toward as they encounter obstacles and things to pull.

Of course, sometimes, you get a free pass and can tell by the cow-dog riding in the back.

But if not, and you still haven’t quite narrowed it down, then we must consider the less intentionally acquired features like dirt and dust and spit.

That means the color of the dirt, and how long it collects; also the dents and the scratches and the two bumper stickers that may or may not still be relevant to current events.

You can tell a lot by the pickup that someone drives, and when that’s how you see people, you can see it impressively fast. All those bits that we just laid out are often passed at significant speed.

An ag-person’s pickup is a lot like his face: worn by the weather and shaped by the needs of the land. But at least with a pickup, you do occasionally get to trade.

Audra Brown will wave from her pickup seat if you meet her on the road today. Contact her at:

[email protected]