[georgieb51]

Originally Posted by Rich72C10

While not about a Chevy Truck, my story is about understanding sentimental loss and yearning for it back:

My dad got his first car in the mid-60s while in high school, a 1930 Model-A. It was missing just about everything but he got it working. When he went into the Navy it went into storage (well a backyard barn really) and he pulled out in the late 70s, when I was just a kid. From then on out it me and him working on it and then my brother and Dad. The model A was my dads primary car to drive (anywhere, including to Garland, Tx to visit his Mom & Dad from Longview, Tx). Kind of crazy now thing about my Dad driving a Model A all over town from about '78 until the early 90s. Also, there must have been a dozen or so family members that learn to drive in that Model A (my Dad was the oldest of 7). Nearly every kid on my street growing up drove this car as their first car to drive.

My brother is the car mechanic (restoring 20~30s Ford is what he does), so he really got into it with my dad. When both my mom were classified as disabled, my brother got his hard ship license in 8th grade and the Model A was the car he drove from then on out. My brother drove this car until he was in Dallas where it ended up being stolen right under his nose at his apartment complex around 2005. It was like we lost a family member.

To make this story even sadder, about a year or so ago he was going to some guys place in East Texas that he was told had "old 30s Ford parts" for sell. In all the stuff on this guys land was a cut up Model A Ford... which was my Dads that got stolen from my brother in Dallas. There wasn't much left but what was left we could tell it was Dads... from the hole for the "whip CB antenna" to some welding scars (the car was a 100% beater but drove like an angel). When my brother called me from that place, I really thought he was going to have a mental break down and not recover...

So all of that is to say: if you can get your grandfather truck, get it! I am rooting for you!

Thanks for that story Ryan. It sort of tore my heart in a couple different directions. If anything it tells a story of how it is not always easy to figure out what to do. I too wish you could have talked with the previous owner. You both would have benefitted even if you could not sell it. He could talk with you and keep in touch and get a ride, etc, and the car would somehow still be in his life. It would have been a wonderful thing to be able to share the car with him in that way.