Feature: Antique truck lover

(Page 2 of 2)

June 2008
Story and photographs by Amy L. Bovaird 
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Dad mainly used a 1937 Railway Express Agency (REA) truck and a restored Model T Ford as taxis. (No longer in existence, the REA once served as a popular way of transporting cargo.) The '39 Ford pickup, meanwhile, got him around town. In addition to ferrying himself and others, the vehicles were also called into service for parades.

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To keep business rolling, Dad and his employees restored the vehicles, and three other employees served as chauffeurs. It was a family business, run by word of mouth.

Dad's trucks created quite a stir. By 2006, stores were selling wooden blocks featuring the familiar sight of Dad's pickup, his dog in the back. That's the year he was diagnosed with cancer. He died two months after the discovery, at 78.

Memories roll on

Dad passed the business on to my sister and her husband, Carolyn and Dave Wehr. The vehicles are in storage, but perhaps when my brother-in-law retires in a few years, the fleet will roll back into service.

Folks often say they miss the constant gentle presence Dad had about town. He was a dreamer and entrepreneur who was able to draw folks into his world - one of loud, aging horns, shiny chrome grilles, and bulging headlights - and make them dream along with him. It still seems as if he will appear just around the bend, with a wave and a smile, perhaps a honk, and that black Lab behind him.

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