Grandpa's little suprise...

[monster truck]

My Grandpa loves to go to the truck shows whenenver one is close enough and knows pretty much everybody you will see at one. And like me, everybody he talks to when he is there keeps asking him why he drives the car to the shows and leaves his truck at home. His answer is always the same, "That's a workin truck, not a showin truck" and to his credit, most of the times he has said that the truck was sitting at home with a load on it waiting to be delivered monday morning.

Fast forward to a few months ago, some phone calls were made, some connections created, and a plan was hatched for the annual antique truck show up by Burney Falls. Grandpa goes to this show every year and it has long been a favorite of his but little did he know that this year would top any show he has been to.

One problem, his truck had to be there. The organizers of the show and the organization behind his little suprise insisted on it. I casually mentioned to Grandpa that he should take his truck to the show this year and got the exact response I was expecting, "That's not a show truck, it's not in show condition and it's not going up there." Well since he was pretty much wrong on all three counts we hatched a new plan. Grandpa and Grandma were going to leave friday morning in the car and head up to Burney Falls for the weekend at the show, that evening I was going to steal Grandpa's truck and roll into the show about midnight to pull the truck into it's already reserved spot. The only flaw is this plan was that we werent quite sure what reaction we would get on saturday morning when Grandpa pulled up to the show and saw his truck sitting right in the center.

Luckily after bugging, prodding and pleading over the next couple of months we were able to convince him that it was time to finally take his truck to a show and I was able to avoid a few felonies! So this past friday, after having trucks for over 50 years, owning this particular one for over 30 and it being the truck he has driven every day for the last 20 years, Loyal Stanley pulled out of the yard and took his 1969 Pete cabover to a truck show, the first time he has ever taken any truck to a show.

Now time for the suprise, the calls that were made and the connections created were with the fine people at the American Truck Historical Society. Right after the awards were handed out for the show and shine, in wich Grandpa took third, the A.T.H.S. awarded Grandpa with thier golden achievment award for 50 years of service to the trucking industry as an owner operator and presented him with a nice little plaque thanking him for his years in business and the advances he helped to create in the industry. On top of that he will be featured in the next Wheels Of Time book put out by the A.T.H.S. It will have the history of his career, written by me, along with some pictures of him and his trucks. With friday being his 71st birthday, saturday being presented the golden achievment award, sunday being fathers day and this whole thing being the first truck show he's ever entered a truck in, I dont think this will be a weekend he forgets anytime soon.

But true to his form, after all that, at 4am monday morning, that 42 year old Peterbilt fired up and pulled out of the yard to deliver it's load, just like it does every day. Some people just never quit. :notworthy

 

[alrman]

:thumbsup Top story! Hope I can still work at 71! Thanks for posting :drinkup

 

[EGS]

Very good story, thank you for sharing!

Does he have any idea how many miles he has put on over the years?

 

[prenn1984@gmail]

Awesome story! That truck is sooo nice!

 

[monster truck]

Does he have any idea how many miles he has put on over the years?

Im not sure about him but about a month ago we did some research on the truck through all of the old service records and the paperwork he still has from when he bought it and found that the truck has just over 4.2 million miles on it. That averages to right at 100k miles per year. Of course every part of the drive train and suspension has been replaced a few times over but the cab and frame are original and have made the equivilent of 168 trips around the world.

If you use the 100k mile a year average he has around 5 million miles under his belt, but that would only be a rough estimate.

 

[tonka]

:notworthyIts old truckers like your grampa, that make all the little kids wanna be truckers MT... Very cool deal!!!!:drinkup

 

[monster truck]

Your exactly right Tonka, he's the one that got me hooked on trucks as a little kid! Some of my earliest memories are riding on the dog house of a cabover going down the road so I could "help" him shift and hit the jake switch when we came to a hill, I'll never forget that.

 

[Dominion 410]

Right on!

 

[jeff112]

love the story,Brings back some good memories of sitting in all the cabovers at my grandfathers shop a long time ago, pretending to drive them.very nice tribute to what sounds like a quite modest hard working man.

 

[tonka]

Hey MT tell great story of grampa buying your grandma a new corvette...

 

[monster truck]

Well.... To tell that story I have to tell another story first.

My grandpa has a couple really good friends who are also long time truckers that love the classics. One of them is named Renae, and the other is named Shirley, both of whom, despite what thier names would have you believe, are guys. Grandpa spends alot of time with these two and it can cause quite a bit of confusion. Especially when someone calls the house asking for Loyal and my grandma tells them "he's went to lunch with Shirley" or "him and Renae went for a ride in the truck." Needless to say, there have been plenty of rumors about my Grandpa and his running around with these two from people who dont know who they are. My Grandparents are well aware of the rumors and tend to have a little fun with them by playing it up a bit from time to time.

Now that that stories out of the way it's on to the corvette story. A couple years ago mothers day was coming up and Grandpa got to thinking it was time to do somthing big. His official statement is that it was because he has the best wife in the world and she deserves more than he could ever give her for putting up with him for all these years. I think, it was because he figures he might be starting to get up there in age and just in case he ever forgot an important date he could just point back and say "yeah but remember when I..." The debate is still up in the air on that one.

After doing alot of thinking and planning grandpa figured it was finally time to make one of grandma's dreams come true. So on mothers day he fired up the pickup, wich grandma hates to drive and was the only non Peterbilt vehicle that they owned, and he headed to the Chevy dealership. As this was not his first trip there he was glad to see grandma's mothers day gift sitting right out front. After going in and signing all the final paperwork he headed back to the house and told grandma that he wanted to take her to town for lunch. So they loaded up in the pickup and grandpa made his second trip to town.

Grandma was a little confused as they turned and drove past walmart as she knew that there was no restraunts down that street. It all became came clear however when they pulled up to the brand new shiny red corvette with the giant red bow on top and grandpa reached into his pocket and handed her the keys. Grandma was blown away and still gets the biggest smile on her face everytime she even looks at that car.

Now, back to the first story. Grandma was and is still so excited about that car that she has drove it all over the place and told everybody about it and what grandpa did. "Everybody" included quite a few of the people in the rumor circle of grandpa always running around with Renae and Shirley. Upon hearing that he bought her a corvette the rumors were pretty much confirmed in most peoples eyes. The new story was, "Did you here that Loyal had to buy his wife a corvette because she found out about him and someone named Shirley?" My grandparents also heard about these rumors and grandma decided to have some fun with them too! So next time she heard it mentioned her responce was, "Hey, if it gets me a corvette he can spend all the time with Shirley he wants!"

So depending on who you ask, my grandpa is either the greatest husband in the world for buying his wife her dream car for mothers day, or a guy who had to spend 50 grand on a car for his wife because she found out about him running around with a couple people named Renae and Shirley.

 

[tonka]

LOL... great story MY my hats off to your grandpa!

 

[EGS]

MT your grandpa sounds like a stand up individual, people like that are getting hard to find.

Great stories also.

 

[monster truck]

Well I'm way behind on this one but after my Grandpa's truck mad it's first show apperance it got quite a bit of attention, including some attention from the editor of Wheels of Time magazine. I was contacted by the editor and asked if they could use the truck for the cover of the magazine, I'm pretty sure I said yes before she finished asking! Once that was settled, it was time to figure out the logistics of how to make this happen. With them on the east coast and us on the west coast, it was going to take some work to get it done. The first question the editor asked was if I knew of a photographer who could take the pictures, she sounded a little concerned when I replied with, "I have a camera." She then asked if I had ever taken proffesional quality photo's before and she sounded a little more concerned when I replied with, "No, but how hard can it be, point and shoot right?" She reluctantly agreed to let me send her some sample shots of the truck. She then asked if one of thier writers would be able to interview my grandpa so that they could get all of the history of the truck, as well as his career to write the story, she thought I was flat out crazy when I said, "Well, I already know all that stuff, why dont I just write it for you?" When she asked if I had ever written a magazine article before I'm pretty sure she was already expecting my answer of, "No, but I'll give it a shot, how hard can it be?"

With a barrowed camera and only a half a$$ed idea of what I was doing I took the truck out to the vineyard down the street to take some sample pictures for the magazine. I was amazed with how good they turned out, apperantly the editor was pretty amazed too as she called me and tolf me not to even bother taking anymore, she was going to use those pictures for the magazine! Now it was time to write the article, I figured that I'm a good enough story teller to fake my way through it and after a long night grilling my grandpa about his history, I was able to send in my draft of the article. After a few minor edits the editor sent it back to me to make sure I was still ok with the way it looked, of course I did, I wrote it! Then came the waiting game, turns out, magazines take a long time to put together. After a few months of impatiently checking the mailbox I finally had my hands on a copy of the finished magazine with my granpa's truck on the cover! My grandparents couldnt be prouder of that truck and they keep a copy (they ordered 20) of the magazine on thier coffee table at all times.

The pictures below are the ones that were used for the magazine, I also threw a couple in of the two cabovers at the dock together getting loaded because it's just not a sight you see too often anymore!

 

[alrman]

This thread gets better & better - love your style monster truck :thumbsup
Cheers to your grandpa :beerchug

 

[dirty4fun]

It looks like you done right by your grandpa, with the pctures and the story. Love the rest of the story, especially about Shirley and Ranea, I can just about hear grandma, embelishing the story with each telling.

 

[tonka]

:drinkup cheers to you and grampa MT... good people making the world go around one load at a time!!!:notworthy

 

[Taylor95042]

Awesome story, keep em rolling forward grampa, I think them old cabover's are sharp when all cleaned up definitly a dying breed.