Posted by Steve in NJ [68.196.235.206] on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 20:20:08 :
Today I met the man whose father was the original owner of my 1949 PW. His name is Rich and he is about 80 years old. I interrupted him while he was rebuilding an engine in his shop. He was an exceptionally nice man and I felt very comfortable with him.
The truck belonged his family and they did a lot of underground water work for the city. The truck’s belt pulley drive was used many times.
I went to see him to try to get old pictures of the truck when he owned and was working it. No luck with the pictures. He was the man who fabricated the utility box that took me 3 days to cut off. He was an incredible welder.
Without telling him it was his old truck, I showed him the pictures of what the truck looks like now. I told him that I have a picture of what it looked like when I first got it. Of course, he immediately recognized it. He loved that truck.
He had lots of great memories of that truck. I told him my plans were to bring it up for him to see and he said NO!
After his father passed away, the family business went to the eldest brother who apparently ran the company into the ground and destroyed the family. The brothers split and the company was divided. There were 2 Power Wagons; one went to each side of the family.
When we were talking about this, I could see he was getting upset. He abruptly and politely said “please leave”.
What I thought was a good thing to do turned out not to be. I’ve been thinking about this all day.
Steve
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