Dear Brother Truckers,
I have been a member of oletrucks for about a year now, and have read
with great interest what many of you are doing with your trucks. The
experience of owning and repairing a vintage vehicle is an expression of
freedom that we fortunately all enjoy, and thank goodness, we all are
free to do with our trucks what we wish.
However, after thinking on it all, I plan to keep my truck as original as
I can, for the very reason of perserving the past. One of my earliest
childhood memories was working in my grandpa's Skelly service station
back in the early 60's. Grandpa had been pumping gas since they had hand
pumps. I'm talking the late 20's here folks. He forgot more about cars
than I will ever know, but people all over the area would bring in their
old cars for him to work on. From an early age I got to watch him work
on '28 Chevys, '32 F**Ds, etc. (By the way, he hated F**ds with a
"purple passion", as he would say.)
He owned a '50 Chevy 3100 which he drove to work every day, and one of my
fondest memories was riding around town with grandpa in the old truck.
Of course, he is gone, and his old green AD is also long gone, but I'll
never forget the night that I finished the mechanical work on my '51
Chevy and fired it up. Although it had been 35+ years since I had been
in grandpa's truck, there was that unmistakeable sound, that sound that
only a 216 makes. It was like I was transported back in time. It had
been so long that I had forgotten what they sound like. I now understand
why he liked working on the real old stuff back then. For him it was
like a trip down memory lane.
I think I'll keep mine original, just so 50 years from now, somebody will
drive it and say aha, so that's what they drove 100 years ago.
Sorry for the length, take care one and all and keep on trucking!
Larry
'51 3100, 5 window (green like grandpa's)
OkC, OK
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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