Badass Rig
lyrics
This is right off my Greetings From Paris On The Kuskokwim CD. Brian Sanders plays the acoustic lead guitar on this, Bobby Gregory plays the electric lead. Bobby can also be heard on Peter Twitchell's Eskimo Jam CD, which, if you're ever in Bethel, you can get from him or at the Moravian Bookstore. I'll get a page on the site here for Pete's CD, but that's another story.
Specificially, The Badass Rig was my 1979 Jeep J-10 pickup. I drove it for about five years in Bethel while its body rapidly rusted apart. It started up and ran pretty well if you used the right curse-words in the right combination while pulling the choke just so and giving the accelerator a stomp and a nudge. Due to the rust, the sides of the bed were not connected to the floor of the bed, at least not very well, and on the rough roads they would periodically spread apart and the tailgate would fall off.
One of the Saturday occupations was rut-ridin'--taking the Badass Rig out on the BIA Road or to Haroldson's Subdivision or the sand pits and seeing what it would do. Sophie, my German shepherd, always went along and barked at everything that remotely resembled a critter. The back of the truck was her domain.
Another Saturday occupation was dumpster hunting. In Bethel there is no house-to-house trash pickup, there are dumpsters parked all over town. Some are convenient. Although there is usually one within walking distance, it is preferable to throw the trash in the back of the truck and go hunting for a really suitable dumpster. I generally went to the one at the far edge of Tundra Ridge, just for somewhere to go and something to do.