THE JEEP IS STRONG IN MY FAMILY.

The JEEP runs strong in my family, my Farther Had it, My Brother Has it, I have it, ....  and my Sister has it.  A big thank you to my Eldest Brother for sharing several Jeep stories from our family history. Stephen the Elder as we call him is ​a Professor of Humanities and Philosophy at the University of Central Oklahoma, 

​My Dad's Jeep. In Odenton, MD, Dad bought a Jeep Wagoneer. Mom can tell you if it was new or used. It was a medium/dark blue, similar to this 1966 model. We used it extensively in our Boy Scout outings, as by then Dad was the Scoutmaster of Troop 713 in the Baltimore Area Council. Meetings were on Friday nights, and I remember our coursing around for about 2 hours, taking scouts home from our gatherings. For camping trips, this was the ideal vehicle, as few had 4x4 vehicles at the time. When Dad passed away, we sold the VW Beetle we also owned, and moved to Shrewsbury, MA, with the Jeep as our primary family vehicle. In Amherst by 1969, the Wagoneer was still the only car we had. It was the first car I ever drove (albeit I was a motorcyclist until I was 28). Shutesbury in 1972 ... Linwood had a International pickup truck with a plow mount, and the Wagoneer continued to be the major family car. Only in Tallahassee did the Jeep get replaced by a VW. Mom sold the Jeep to a couple of guys who were looking for a vehicle that could handle sand. Unfortunately, the Wagoneer was not what they needed: years later, I found our Jeep abandoned and half buried in the sand on the western side of the cut that runs through St. George's Island. There are no roads on that side, so they must have dropped it there by boat. I knew it was our Jeep ... the pin holes in the roof-liner where we had a St. Christopher's medal were still there. In all probability, our family Jeep was eventually swept into the bay on the north side of the island in one of the hurricanes that hit the island. Thus ended the long career of the first Jeep in our family.    -   Stephen the Elder

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