My early experiences with Chevy trucks included a short wheelbase 1961 pickup and a 1949 flatbed.
Then there was the 1953 GMC actually owned by our neighbor, but which I rode in many times.
It was affectionately known as the Green Frog.
For example, the 1960 Chevy had a wooden bed.
The memory for me is vivid of helping my dad late at night cut out the rotted boards and replace the wood while reusing the metal spacers.
A nasty job, but much easier than replacing a rotted away metal bed.
Wood beds still make sense.
Then the 1949 was a hay hauling truck in the 1960's.
The granny gear made it a cinch to use in the hay field.
You could just put it in gear and forget the clutch as it eased forward.
Anybody could drive it and it was dead reliable, a successor of the WW II military trucks which were copied by the Russians and continued in production for years.
Only the wide-spread switch to using trailers on farms instead of big trucks for many jobs, brought an end to the old 40's GM trucks.
The Green Frog lived on into the 70's, a fixture in our community.
The sound of the old straight 6 is burned into the auditory memory of thousands, much as the sound of the 2 cylinder poppin' John tractors rests in memory as well.
But things changed and Chevy Trucks are no longer the same.
It's been an evolutionary process, and most of the process has been improvement.
Maybe newer trucks don't elicit the nostalgia, but in time the memories associated with newer, better trucks may be the same.
The memories of sounds, people and adventures may be just as real, even though the vehicles may lack some of the character of the older machines.
New trucks combine better performance in every way with improved safety, that's for sure.
Chevy trucks still have some of the feel and sound of older models.
It's been an evolutionary trip in some ways to get from the older truck to the sophisticated machines of today.
Maybe in some way that journey can continue and not disappear.
Then there was the 1953 GMC actually owned by our neighbor, but which I rode in many times.
It was affectionately known as the Green Frog.
For example, the 1960 Chevy had a wooden bed.
The memory for me is vivid of helping my dad late at night cut out the rotted boards and replace the wood while reusing the metal spacers.
A nasty job, but much easier than replacing a rotted away metal bed.
Wood beds still make sense.
Then the 1949 was a hay hauling truck in the 1960's.
The granny gear made it a cinch to use in the hay field.
You could just put it in gear and forget the clutch as it eased forward.
Anybody could drive it and it was dead reliable, a successor of the WW II military trucks which were copied by the Russians and continued in production for years.
Only the wide-spread switch to using trailers on farms instead of big trucks for many jobs, brought an end to the old 40's GM trucks.
The Green Frog lived on into the 70's, a fixture in our community.
The sound of the old straight 6 is burned into the auditory memory of thousands, much as the sound of the 2 cylinder poppin' John tractors rests in memory as well.
But things changed and Chevy Trucks are no longer the same.
It's been an evolutionary process, and most of the process has been improvement.
Maybe newer trucks don't elicit the nostalgia, but in time the memories associated with newer, better trucks may be the same.
The memories of sounds, people and adventures may be just as real, even though the vehicles may lack some of the character of the older machines.
New trucks combine better performance in every way with improved safety, that's for sure.
Chevy trucks still have some of the feel and sound of older models.
It's been an evolutionary trip in some ways to get from the older truck to the sophisticated machines of today.
Maybe in some way that journey can continue and not disappear.
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