This fad of the old square body Chevy trucks being super cool now got me thinking back to when they were newly issued back in the day and I thought I would share a story, it's Friday and all. My grandfather on my moms side lived out West. Every summer vacation my friends were going to the beach and we were going to the middle of nowhere Nebraska. I didn't see the ocean until I was 20. 2 days there, 2 days back. It may as well of been a trip to the middle of the Sahara Desert as far as a young boy was concerned. At that age when they would ask me what I wanted to eat I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that McDonalds was two hours away. Anyway grandpa had an old Chevy square body. It was white and grandpa being the cattle rancher he was used the back of that old white truck like a man purse. I don't know that I have ever seen anything quit like it before or since. Rolling around in the back of that truck was anything you needed to fix fence, feed the cows, start a tractor, fix a bailer, pull a calve, etc... Buckets, T posts, barb wire, insulators, elect fence posts, salt, mineral, dead game... it was hard telling what was back there but if you needed something that is where you went to look. If it wasnt there you needed to go to the store lol. Now this was just one of many trucks over the years and they all fit the bill of being one big rolling drivable tool box drawer for all things ranching related. That particular truck was a stick shift and the four wheel drive was like back in the day when there was another 4x4 shift selector handle on the floor board of the truck. Low high etc... locking hubs you had to get out and turn manually in the center of the two front wheels to lock in the four wheel drive. The lever only engaged the trans not the hubs. Its all auto nowadays. On both doors was a picture of the head of a Charolais cow and the ranch name. It was cool at the time even. The original side by side if you will. You have to keep in mind this is back when like 3 wheelers were a new thing and quads and side by sides hadn't really taken off yet.
Anyway he would drive trucks until they couldn't go anymore and then he'd park it in a fence row and go get another one. The white Chevy square body lasted a good long time but eventually it was retired and sat in the bone yard fence row. Well out there every farm has rows of pine trees. I imagine b/c its flat and the cool thing to do at one time was to plant rows of pines for wind breaks I would imagine. Mostly likely to help with snow drifting. Well anyway a young teenage boy learning to hunt loved going out there in the winter and walking all of that habitat hunting or trapping or whatever. That area used to be big time for pheasant hunting back then. So there I was walking the pine trees jumping pheasants and quail hunting by myself in what must have been November / December Thanksgiving / Christmas time b/c we were there visiting during the winter. There was snow on the ground and I eventually ended up over by the boneyard. I was cold and figured I'd jump in one of the old cars to get out of the wind and warm up. There she was the old square body. You guys know what it is like jumping in a vehicle when its cold and blowing and you been out in it. It got quiet and still and instantly it felt warmer even though the degrees Fahrenheit was the same as outside. The truck had probably sat there for a year, actually probably two or three. The grass was growed up beside it and it was just minding its own business sitting in that fence row when I was surprised to see the keys hanging in the ignition. I chuckled and thought ah what the heck I will try to start it for old times sake. Wouldn't you know that thing turned over about three or four times and started right up! It sat there idling and I turned the heater on and got nice an cozy. When I got back to the house at supper time I told that story and everyone was really surprised. Grandpa said he had parked it bc of transmission trouble when he finally pulled the plug. Grandpa was born in 1920 and passed in 2007. I would have been 13 years old in 1990 and that is my old square body story. His next truck was a red 90's Chevy truck like Dale Earnhardt used to drive. His buddy shot through the floor board of that truck turkey hunting out there in their old age but that's another story.
