Best of Craigslist 2008

Craigslist, the grassroots classifieds monolith, is essential to any study of Ozark motoring culture. It's a treasure of backyard V8 conversions, mint hearses, and defunct European sedans.

I'm a compulsive Craigslist browser. I've even bought a car off Craigslist, a narrowly successful $500 adventure in retrieving an Infiniti-turned-squirrels'-nest from a shed in rural SW Missouri. Priceless, yet tortured memories.

With 2009 days away, I have to pick a winner from this pool of greatness. My favorite find (and the competition was fierce) in 2008 was this Lisa Frank "Munster" of a 80s show truck, a 1985 Toyota 4X4 in Rogers, AR. [mirrored here]



First of all, it's the rad torquoise frame paint-up and period-correct hot pink graphics. The overdone roll bars with an excess of off-road lights are more eighties gold. Plus, the proud, persistent, all-caps re-listings for weeks and weeks on end. "YOU FEEL LIKE A MOVIE STAR WHEN YOU DRIVE THIS ITS AWSOME."

Whoa, totally, dude.

But the deal maker, the truck's party piece, is that it's the real-life version of the all the George Trosley comics I read (again and again) in CarToons magazine in the 80s. I was weaned on ridiculous hot rods doing wheelies, jokes about running from the police, and of course, lots of exaggerated 4x4s.

I actually have this issue somewhere:



Tubular.

Mission Statement

Yesterday I was on a brisk drive through rural McDonald County, Missouri, when much like the Ace of Base, I saw the Sign. It opened up my eyes. I saw the sign:

WELL SEASONED OPOSSUM MEATS FOR SALE

The clouds parted like a Monty Python bit, and a cartoon God told me that I must share the beauty and splendor of my scenic, native Ozarkia. At least until I get bored.

Ooooooohwaaaaaa.