So, what's your story? Add a post below mine and let us enjoy a stroll down memory lane.

I had a birthday last month. Where in the world did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that I was building bicycles in elementary school and now I'm 71! I might be getting older, but I REFUSE to grow up!!

I guess my journey with mechanical things started when I was around 4 years old when my Parents bought me a pedal car. I was so excited that I sat in the body before my Dad was able to assemble it and evidently I wouldn't get out! That's one vehicle that I wish I still had. This happened in Des Moines, Iowa, when my Dad was going to Medical School. He had become a Pharmacist before I was born, but when I was three, he decided to go back to school to be a Doctor. Long story there that I won't go into here. We were in Des Moines from the fall of 1955 until the middle of 1959.

In a deal with my Grandfather (who owned Meltz Pharmacy in Bordentown, NJ), Pop-pop paid for my Dad's education and in return, we went back east during the summers so my Dad could run the pharmacy and my Grandparents could go on vacation. It was during one of these trips that I was introduced to old Chevys. One of Pop-pop's friends owned a Chevrolet Dealership that he started in 1925. He kept one car from his early days and used to give me rides in it. That got me hooked!! From that point on, I NEEDED to own an old Chevy! Here's a pic of me standing next to that car circa 1963 (I was ten) when we took a trip back to the east coast to visit family.

We moved to Oakland, CA, in 1959 for my Dad's residency. We lived in a couple of rented places and then in 1962 we moved into the first house my folks bought in Oakland, CA. It had a GARAGE that my folks did not use for the family cars. Yay!!

I started collecting old bicycles and started mixing parts to make oddball creations. For example, I turned a 20 inch bicycle upside down, flipped the forks upside down, put a six inch solid rubber wheel on the front, and rode it standing up! I couldn't figure out how to get a seat on what used to be the bottom of the frame, whick was now on top. 😉 I also built a couple of wooden coasters (like a go kart, but no motor) to race the neighborhood kids down the local hills.

One of my Dad's Dr. buddies (Carl Matsen) had a summer place that we went to quite a few times. 500 acres in the Sonoma, CA area with a stone house in the middle and lots of open space. It was on that property that I eventually learned to drive in a WWII Willys jeep. 😉 One time we were there, I noticed a rusty, old Briggs engine laying on the ground. I asked Dr. Matsen about it and he said it was frozen and it had come off a piece of equipment. He then said I could have it, if I wanted it. YESSERYBOB! I don't know the year, but I suspect I was in 7th grade or so.

After taking the head off and banging on the piston with a hammer, it got unstuck. 😉 A neighbor who knew some mechanical stuff helped me to get it running. What joy! I tried putting it on one of my bicycles, but I didn't know abot gear ratios, so I tried one-to-one gearing. Of course, it wouldn't run.

A couple of years of experimenting, a couple of different types of frames and the eventual purchase of a used Techumseh 6 hp HH60 monster engine, led me to build my first working minibike. This was around 1966 when I was 13 years old. I wasn't sure my folks would let me keep it, so I hid it in my best friend's garage. After a couple of months, I brought it home and all was good. 😉

With that motor, it was a screaming demon! One day, a friend and I were running it around the parking lot of a community center. Well, the bike was too much for my friend to handle so he ran into a wall and totalled the front half of the bike. The kid also flew through a window and needed some stiches. Good thing my Dad was a Doctor!

I cut off the mangled parts of the frame and front forks and decided to make a mini chopper. The local hardware store had just what I needed to rebuild the frame: 3/4 inch galvanized water pipes! I cut them to length and took the frame and tubing to another friend's place. His Dad had a welder and he graciously welded it up for me. After reassembling, I rode it around for a while and then decided to make it fancy. With my paper route money, I had the gears chrome plated and had the frame painted at a local auto paint shop. The owner took pity on me and only charged me $10. 😉 He even did some really cool pin striping on it. I named the minibike the Preying Mantis.

Later, when I was in high school, I entered it into the 1970 National Roadster Show at the Oakland Collisium and got a tall particpation trophy.

I still have that minibike! 😉 Below is a recent pic of it. Last August (2024), 54 years after the Roadster show, I took it to the infamous Councors d'Lemons in Seaside, CA, where I won the Sickest Sickle award. Great fun! Here is a link to a video of that show. You can see me briefly driving it at one minute, forty seconds into the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-33K4xvRPM

In high school, I had a number of motorcycles. In order, a Honda 175, Honda 350 Scrambler, and lastly a Kawasaki 500. It's a wonder that I'm still alive! On one weekend trip, I went camping with a buddy who had the audacity to pass me on a straight, newly paved road in the countryside with his Suzuki 250. I was on the Kawasaki. I passed him back, leaving him in a blue cloud (my bike had a 60 hp, three cylinder, two cycle engine) and took it up to 135 mph. The bike would've done more, but I couldn't so I backed it down. Picture this: a sleeping bag was tied to the front forks and my acoustical guitar was strapped to the side. Stupid! Not long after that the Kawasaki got sold.

A few years later, after getting married and having bought my home (which I still live it), I bought a wrecked 1969 Honda 750. This was in the late 1970s. I fixed it up and drove it for a while. In 1981, I was laid off a few times from work because business was slow, so I had to sell the 750. As it turns out, it was probably a good move for my health.

In 1990 I got serious about owning an old Chevy. One day near work (South San Jose CA) I stopped at a yard sale at a local farm. Lots of neat stuff, but what caught my eye was the remnents of an old truck in the background. It turned out that the farmer had two of them! I bought them both, thinking I could make one good one from the parts of the two. Here's a couple of pictures taken the day I rented a truck and trailer and hauled them home. In the first pic, my son Josh (8 years old) is standing next to the black truck as it was found. The second pic shows the two trucks sitting in my driveway with me in one (grinning like the Cheshire Cat) and my wife sitting in the other (with total disgust noticable on her face). Josh took the photo from across the street. It was one of the best days of my life!!! They turned out to be two 1928 LO one ton trucks that had spent their entire life on that farm.

 
I built a carport on the side of our house and started to disassemble one of the trucks. At the same time, I found a local chapter of the VCCA and joined in 1991. At one meeting, a guy (Fred Slosser) told me that he had a 1927 LM Chevy one ton truck with lots of Philippine Mahogany and White Oak wood to go with it. He was moving out of the area and couldn't take it with him. I checked it out and it was in MUCH better shape than either of my trucks, so I bought it from him. Since I don't have a garage at home (that became our bedroom when Josh was born), I needed to get rid of the two trucks before bringing the new one home. I donated them to the local high school auto shop. The teacher thought they might make a mascot vehicle for the school. The next photo shows the LM truck in my front yard with Josh (a little older) sitting on it.

So, I had a 1927 LM in the carport and was going to VCCA meetings. Fun times! I was asked at one of the meetings, "What is your truck's name?". Hmmm. Well Fred, the previous owner, envisioned building a 12 passenger wood bus body on this chassis, and that was my vision too. Thinking about how that would look from the front (a big, rectangular 'face' with bug eyes (headlights)), it reminded me of Herman Munster. So, the truck was named Herman.

At a VCCA meeting in 1994, George Childs (long time VCCA member) told me he had a rolling chassis for a '27 LM on the side of his house that I could have for $100. Wow, I couldn't pass that up, so I brought it home and put it in the driveway. My son Josh, ever the imaginative one, said, "Well if the truck in the carport is Herman, this one is Lurch!" The rest, as they say, is history.

So, I had owned four Chevy one ton trucks in a span of 4 years and was VERY anxious to get something running and the best option was Lurch. After six months of work, Lurch was on the road and I was overjoyed!! 😉 The next two photos show a 'naked' Lurch (as he arrived in the driveway) and the finished, running rascal we all have come to love. 😉

 
By the time 2010 rolled around, it was generally known that I loved Chevy trucks from the late 1920s. A member of the Greater South Bay Chapter of the VCCA (Paul Amaroso) called me and said that a family member of a friend had an old Chevy truck and they needed someone to help identify it so it could be sold. The owner had passed away and the daughter was the one that needed help. Paul sent me some pics of the truck and it was definitely a late 1920s Chevy. Paul gave me her contact info (Laura Forbes), I called, and arranged to look at it. It was a 1928 Chevy 1/2 ton Canopy Express that her Dad found on a farm in 1954 and he'd been tinkering with it for 55 years before passing in 2009. I was in love all over again! She had it appraised and thanks to my reputation with Lurch, she felt I would give it a good home and NOT hot rod it.

Of course, I had to get rid of Herman to bring this truck home, so I sold it to Lou MacMillan in Berkeley, CA. Laura's Dad's first name was Justin, so that's the name I gave the truck to honor his finding it and preserving it all those years.
The next three photos show:

1. Justin as I found him in Laura's garage.
2. Justin back on the road after I spent 2 1/2 years finding and fixing all the things that the previous Justin didn't take care of.
3. My son Josh and me at a local car show in 2021. I drove Lurch to the show and Josh drove Justin. Good times!

 TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST