Post by Mike B on Dec 20, 2008 21:31:22 GMT -4
Recycled truck could be called a family heirloom
Laura Lane H-T columnist | llane@heraldt.com
April 13, 2008
BLOOMINGTON — Sometimes, Justin Payne can almost see his grandpa there in the passenger seat of his 1983 Ford F150 pick-up truck, laughing and joking like he used to.
The truck was used when Bert Payne bought it years ago, “but it sure was new to him,” said his grandson, who learned to drive the old truck as a teenager when he lived with his grandparents.
“It’s basically, you know, a real good truck,” Justin Payne said. “Everybody that knows me knows me in this truck. And they can’t believe I still have it.”
He took the truck over after his grandfather died in 2005. It was his inheritance: not in great condition, but treasured. “I want to keep it going because of my grandfather. I just associate this truck with him.”
His story is the latest in a series of columns about car recycling. I met Payne when I ventured into NAPA Auto Parts in downtown Bloomington to buy a halogen bulb for a burned-out headlight on the 10-year-old Subaru Outback a friend passed on to me for free. I later installed the bulb myself, sustaining a jagged cut on my hand in the process.
We got to talking there at the NAPA counter, and Payne told me about his recycled truck, handed down from his grandfather.
When I called back a few weeks later, I asked for the guy who owned the old truck parked out back. I had lost the piece of paper with Justin’s name and cell phone number written on it.
I soon got a call from Bob Quakenbush, a 75-year-old NAPA parts delivery driver who drives, you guessed it, an old truck. His boss said I had been trying to track him down to write about the truck.
There was a problem, though. Wrong guy. Wrong truck.
It didn’t matter. Because as I talked to Quakenbush and scrawled down some notes, the wrong truck suddenly became interesting. A column emerged, and his two-tone 1984 GMC trumped Payne’s 1983 Ford.
The experience was a shining example of my My Favorite Ride motto: Everyone has a car story, waiting to be told.
For instance, I was talking to screenwriter Angelo Pizzo at a party last week and the conversation, as it often does in my life, centered on cars. Turns out he had a blue 1964 Mustang in the early 1970s that met an untimely demise, the details of which I cannot recall, possibly because of red wine consumption at the party. (Angelo, if you are reading, call me. There’s a column there. I just know it.)
And when I met with my tax guy Roy Elkes, he mentioned a 1989 Chevrolet Impala that’s been parked in his driveway ever since he bought a fancy Honda Odyssey minivan. Then there’s Stewart Moon’s 1983 Toyota Corolla — maybe its a 1982 model — which he has been trying to get me to write about for seven years now.
Back to Payne’s 25-year-old Ford. He’s not sure how many miles the truck has traveled, but the odometer, he said, has turned over at least once. “I know that, and I know it has a lot (of miles),” he said.
Payne has hauled everything from manure to driveway gravel in the truck bed. And when warm weather arrives, he transports his girlfriend’s kids and their friends to the drive-in.
“I sit on the toolbox and they all lay in the bed of the truck,” he said, anticipating summer nights at the Starlite.
He has replaced some parts on the truck — the alternator, the starter, the valve cover gaskets. It has a new/used transmission that Payne pulled out of an old van.
When he sees people he used to spend time with, they invariably ask about the trusty Ford. “They say, ‘What happened to that old truck you had?’ and I say we still have it.”
He admits the air conditioning is shot, but the truck stays cool with what he calls a “280 — two windows down and 80 mph.”
The radio was broken, so he installed a new one with a CD player so he can listen to country music while cruising. His grandfather would have liked that.
“Sometimes when I drive I actually see him there in the passenger seat, just laughing or cutting up with us,” he said. “We did a lot together in that truck. We had a blast.”
My Favorite Ride takes a road trip
Starting next week, My Favorite Ride is moving. The column no longer will appear in the Sunday newspaper, as it has since it debuted in January 2001.
It’s been a great seven-year ride, but things evolve. This change is beyond my control, and I wish it were not happening. I liked being part of your Sunday morning newspaper routine
The good news? I still will be writing My Favorite Ride, every week, just not on Sundays. Bloomington-area readers will find the column in the Saturday newspaper, packaged with Click and Clack in the classified advertising section.
Readers in Bedford and regions south will need to look on page 3 of the front section of the Times-Mail on either Mondays or Tuesdays.
Our sister paper in Martinsville, The Reporter-Times, assures me they will find a spot for the column on Saturdays, or maybe on Mondays.
Please keep reading. And calling. And sending letters and e-mails about cars and trucks and other vehicles I ought to be writing about.
Because without my readers and their support, ideas and tips, there is no column.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.
Justin Payne stands in front of the truck he inherited from his grandfather, Bert Payne. The truck is 25 years old and has had its fair share of replacement parts. But Payne keeps it running as a tribute to his grandfather. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times
Justin Payne says he sees the ghost of his grandfather in the truck he inherited. The ghost must be in the driver’s seat because there isn’t much room for passengers up front. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times
Laura Lane H-T columnist | llane@heraldt.com
April 13, 2008
BLOOMINGTON — Sometimes, Justin Payne can almost see his grandpa there in the passenger seat of his 1983 Ford F150 pick-up truck, laughing and joking like he used to.
The truck was used when Bert Payne bought it years ago, “but it sure was new to him,” said his grandson, who learned to drive the old truck as a teenager when he lived with his grandparents.
“It’s basically, you know, a real good truck,” Justin Payne said. “Everybody that knows me knows me in this truck. And they can’t believe I still have it.”
He took the truck over after his grandfather died in 2005. It was his inheritance: not in great condition, but treasured. “I want to keep it going because of my grandfather. I just associate this truck with him.”
His story is the latest in a series of columns about car recycling. I met Payne when I ventured into NAPA Auto Parts in downtown Bloomington to buy a halogen bulb for a burned-out headlight on the 10-year-old Subaru Outback a friend passed on to me for free. I later installed the bulb myself, sustaining a jagged cut on my hand in the process.
We got to talking there at the NAPA counter, and Payne told me about his recycled truck, handed down from his grandfather.
When I called back a few weeks later, I asked for the guy who owned the old truck parked out back. I had lost the piece of paper with Justin’s name and cell phone number written on it.
I soon got a call from Bob Quakenbush, a 75-year-old NAPA parts delivery driver who drives, you guessed it, an old truck. His boss said I had been trying to track him down to write about the truck.
There was a problem, though. Wrong guy. Wrong truck.
It didn’t matter. Because as I talked to Quakenbush and scrawled down some notes, the wrong truck suddenly became interesting. A column emerged, and his two-tone 1984 GMC trumped Payne’s 1983 Ford.
The experience was a shining example of my My Favorite Ride motto: Everyone has a car story, waiting to be told.
For instance, I was talking to screenwriter Angelo Pizzo at a party last week and the conversation, as it often does in my life, centered on cars. Turns out he had a blue 1964 Mustang in the early 1970s that met an untimely demise, the details of which I cannot recall, possibly because of red wine consumption at the party. (Angelo, if you are reading, call me. There’s a column there. I just know it.)
And when I met with my tax guy Roy Elkes, he mentioned a 1989 Chevrolet Impala that’s been parked in his driveway ever since he bought a fancy Honda Odyssey minivan. Then there’s Stewart Moon’s 1983 Toyota Corolla — maybe its a 1982 model — which he has been trying to get me to write about for seven years now.
Back to Payne’s 25-year-old Ford. He’s not sure how many miles the truck has traveled, but the odometer, he said, has turned over at least once. “I know that, and I know it has a lot (of miles),” he said.
Payne has hauled everything from manure to driveway gravel in the truck bed. And when warm weather arrives, he transports his girlfriend’s kids and their friends to the drive-in.
“I sit on the toolbox and they all lay in the bed of the truck,” he said, anticipating summer nights at the Starlite.
He has replaced some parts on the truck — the alternator, the starter, the valve cover gaskets. It has a new/used transmission that Payne pulled out of an old van.
When he sees people he used to spend time with, they invariably ask about the trusty Ford. “They say, ‘What happened to that old truck you had?’ and I say we still have it.”
He admits the air conditioning is shot, but the truck stays cool with what he calls a “280 — two windows down and 80 mph.”
The radio was broken, so he installed a new one with a CD player so he can listen to country music while cruising. His grandfather would have liked that.
“Sometimes when I drive I actually see him there in the passenger seat, just laughing or cutting up with us,” he said. “We did a lot together in that truck. We had a blast.”
My Favorite Ride takes a road trip
Starting next week, My Favorite Ride is moving. The column no longer will appear in the Sunday newspaper, as it has since it debuted in January 2001.
It’s been a great seven-year ride, but things evolve. This change is beyond my control, and I wish it were not happening. I liked being part of your Sunday morning newspaper routine
The good news? I still will be writing My Favorite Ride, every week, just not on Sundays. Bloomington-area readers will find the column in the Saturday newspaper, packaged with Click and Clack in the classified advertising section.
Readers in Bedford and regions south will need to look on page 3 of the front section of the Times-Mail on either Mondays or Tuesdays.
Our sister paper in Martinsville, The Reporter-Times, assures me they will find a spot for the column on Saturdays, or maybe on Mondays.
Please keep reading. And calling. And sending letters and e-mails about cars and trucks and other vehicles I ought to be writing about.
Because without my readers and their support, ideas and tips, there is no column.
Got a story to tell about a car or truck? Call 812-331-4362, send an e-mail to lane@heraldt.com or a letter to My Favorite Ride, P.O. Box 909, Bloomington, IN 47402.
Justin Payne stands in front of the truck he inherited from his grandfather, Bert Payne. The truck is 25 years old and has had its fair share of replacement parts. But Payne keeps it running as a tribute to his grandfather. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times
Justin Payne says he sees the ghost of his grandfather in the truck he inherited. The ghost must be in the driver’s seat because there isn’t much room for passengers up front. Laura Lane | Hoosier Times