F-100

I've never owned one, but I used to drive an F-100 around Banff when I worked on a landscaping crew. We would cruise through the bush, following the Canadian Pacific Railway right-of-way, digging small spruce trees that we would ball up, pack into the truck, and sell in town for hedges and ornamental plantings, or just as backyard trees. (Our 2WD  truck had a very low granny gear, like all Fords; you could just about put it in first and get out and walk alongside.) This particular truck has been at Johnson Canyon forever, hauling firewood to the cabins. The Canyon is a few miles out of Banff town. I believe their F-100 is a 1968 model, the second year of this body style. There's something beautiful and ordinary about it, isn't there? The design speaks a simple and modest language, not the bloated, hyper-aggressive, bogus speech that contemporary pickup truck design seems to be talking. There is no better reflection of who we are now than the contemporary pickup truck.  No matter the manufacturer, they all share the same design elements. Massive and cartoonish, trucks in 2011 sell a caricature of masculinity, the way recruiting posters do.  Thanks to AE for the photograph.