The Ford RCSB taught me about life, care, design, and community
Not to be overly sentimental on this subreddit, but these trucks really do take us much further than odometers actually let us know.
I grew up around Ford OBS trucks, particularly the gen 7 to 9. Bullnose and gen9 are what I came back to later on in life. I had them when I had nothing. As a struggling adult in my 30s and going back to college, my ʻ94 F150 XL RCSB with 351w took me to my wit's end and also got me through it all. I learned almost everything I needed to know about maintenance, repairing, and loving a truck. Mechanically, I had little to no skills but the OBS would not take me anywhere if I was not actively participating in its health. I self-taught myself how to work on every part of that truck and I learned valuable lessons about design and how costly it can be to (im)properly diagnose a problem. And it is THESE same lessons that directly helped me understand how to build a ʻBeloved Communityʻ in the leadership and planning work I would end up doing.
My ʻ94 OBS RCSB carried me through 6+ years of university and grad school into a new career. I finished grad school as an urban and regional planner and immediately began working in indigenous planning & design. I now have my own indigenous planning and design firm and I am co-lead on a very successful social enterprise for community-based regenerative tourism, stewardship and economic development. I owe so much to that ʻ94 OBS RCSB, and while I still have it, I am now in this lifted 2023 F150 RCSB - carrying the same lessons for care and management that these trucks and this life has afforded me.