My Favorite Ride: A 1998 Jeep Cherokee cements friendship between writers

Jim Thom and I had corresponded awhile, he sent the most lovely ink-on-fine-paper handwritten letters, before meeting in person for coffee in 2017.

We didn't intend to discuss war, writing or the wicked ways of the world, but instead his red 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The odometer had just turned 300,000 miles and my fellow writer, a former newspaper reporter turned historical novelist, thought there might be a story there.

Hell yes there was. And also an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table with Jim and his wife Dark Rain in the log cabin he built in Owen County. I felt as at home there, afternoon light filtered through lace curtains, as if this was family.

The Jeep was a 3,000-pound excuse for a visit that September.

Although frequent readers know I have an affinity for cars and trucks that defy the odds and just keep on driving, long past the time when others have been hauled off to the junkyard crusher, scrap metal.

Thom and the 1998 Jeep Cherokee that drew me to his place have been on my mind since Jim's death on Jan. 30. He was 89.

More:Owen County author James Alexander Thom, known for historical fiction, dies

I remember driving out that day. We had lemon tarts, petit four cakes and coffee, very strong coffee that may have been brewed in an old percolator.

I learned the Jeep SUV was a year old when he bought it with cash in Noblesville in 1999. It was roomy, and the seats were comfortable, Thom said, for their long cross-country trips. When I saw the vehicle nearly two decades later, it had just been washed.

"She doesn’t look as bad as might be expected,” he said, given the odometer reading. He had patched a broken taillight with a piece of red duct tape, and there was some front-end damage on the driver's side.

Thom said Dark Rain "ran down" a neighbor's chain-link fence. She responded that the accident resulted in just a bent fence post. They agreed the cause was Dark Rain grabbing onto a vase of flowers she was taking to a neighbor that fell over in the seat.

I had come for a simple interview and to take a few pictures of the Jeep. I stayed for hours, promising to return, which I didn't do often enough.

I got reminded of that in an October 2020 email after I wrote a story about a neighbor down the road from the Thoms who, after being given no hope for survival, came back from COVID-19 during the worst of the pandemic.

"Hi, Laura. How can we forgive you for being as close as Jeri Hall's without stopping up here for coffee?" he wrote, acknowledging I must be quite busy. "Thank you for your coverage of our Owen County. You probably know that I'm hated over here as a crabby old socialist Antifa anarchist. When you say you're a journalist, do they call you an 'enemy of the people?' The red Jeep Cherokee is now at 310,500 miles, still running …"

I sure am going to miss messages like that one.

I'm not going to eulogize Jim Thom here. Dennis Reardon did that pretty well in a memorial column in The Herald-Times. And the writer of Thom's obituary revealed who the man was and how he lived life.

The obit said Thom's body lay on the porch outside his cabin in a casket built and blessed by Trappist monks. "He was visited by family, friends, squirrels, birds by day, and raccoons by night. His final departure from home was in the back of a '96 Ford F250 pickup."

Love that.

Thom leaves behind his words and beliefs, in books, essays and years of fiery letters to the editor decrying war and political stupidity. He spoke truth to power, every day.

People ask me, "Are you still at the paper?" Have I been laid off, furloughed, fired? Did I survive the latest round of the company's workforce reductions? How do I continue amid the gloom and doom of local journalism these days?

People like Jim Thom remind me how, and why. His emails from the past few years contain encouraging words that won't be forgotten.

"Keep up the good human journalism. It's the best kind. You are much appreciated, Amiga."

The Herald-Times building has been sold and my newsroom office is mostly boxed up. Somewhere in decades of journalism memorabilia is a stack of treasured letters from Thom. I must find them.

Have a story to tell about a car or truck? Contact My Favorite Ride reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: My Favorite Ride: A 1998 Jeep Cherokee cements writers' friendship