Summer of ’79 Happy and Homeless


Welcome to our first home—the back of our 1949 Ford pickup. It featured a makeshift canopy that we secured to a 2 x 6 board on both sides, and then bolted it to the truck frame. This was a remedy for the canopy’s tendency to fly off the truck. 

We slept on an old mattress in back and kept a minimal amount of belongings inside. A friend let us park on his land, and for one summer in college we enjoyed our outdoor dorm room. At the time it was a way we could avoid rent and pay for other things like tuition and food. 

But what it taught us was that we could live with less. We knew we wouldn’t always live this way, but for a season we did. And that season taught us that happiness wasn’t where you lived, or how you lived, but that you lived with love and a heart of shared hope.


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