A Drive Down Memory Lane, The Classic Cars and Trucks of Cecil Neal

 Imagine this: A man restoring a 1946 Chevrolet pickup, his hands meticulously bringing it back to life. Join me, Dan Neal, as I bring these vivid memories to life, recounting my dad's passion for classic automobiles and the stories embedded within each vintage car he owned. There were Chevys, Fords, Plymouths, and more. These tales echo the importance of preserving family stories. Reflect on the nostalgia of a bygone era and perhaps find a piece of your own history along the way. 

Step into the cab of a 1967 Kenworth and ride along with Cecil—a veteran truck driver with over 38 years on the road. Influenced by his uncle Alfred, Cecil's journey from hauling logs to becoming a solo steel hauler. Tune in as I celebrate Cecil's legacy and recount a summer spent riding in the cab of the 1967 Kenworth capturing the spirit of freedom and adventure that only the open road can offer. These stories are a testament to the endurance and love for family that defined Cecil's life. I urge all of us to cherish and document the tales of those we hold dear.

Chapters

• 0:00 Antique Cars and Road Trip Memories
• 9:27 Tales of a Truck Driver's Life

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy, the podcast where we dive into the stories that make life an adventure. I'm your host, dan Neal. In each episode, I sit down with my guests to chat about their first cars, unforgettable road trips, career journeys, hobbies, bucket list dreams and a sprinkle of life advice every now and then. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just love a good story, join us as we explore the roads less traveled and the tales that come with them. Buckle up and let's hit the road. Well, today I'm on a little ride down memory lane for myself. It all came with a conversation I had with a friend the other night about antique cars, antique trucks, and it just reminded me of my dad, and so I recorded this episode to share those memories with you. And again, I'll encourage you if you have family living, make sure you get their stories, share your stories with them, and if you have close friends, share some stories with them and get their stories before it's too late. If you've been a listener to my podcast for any period of time, you know it is about stories. I love to hear people's stories and I love to share those stories.

Speaker 1: 1:11

A bit of this podcast is driven from the fact that there's a lot of lost stories for me that when my parents both passed away in 2014 and 2015,. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years and 9 years. Dad passed away first. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's probably seven years before he died. I believe my brother would agree we had the best parents. This time of year always reminds me of them because they always made sure and I'm guessing it was mostly mom, but dad was a bit creative in his gift giving, but mom was a big gift giver, and so Christmas always reminds me of her.

Speaker 1: 1:51

Last night, though, I was reminded of my dad, and I struck up a conversation with a friend and we began to talk about old vehicles. He had had an old Oldsmobile Cutlass, I believe it was that he had sold and he had bought something else, and it just reminded me of dad, and it just reminded me of my own dad. My brother and I still own his 1946 Chevrolet pickup truck that he restored on our carport Not a garage, but on a carport when he was home on the weekends. I don't recall how long that took or how much he spent. I remember mom saying all the receipts were in a box someplace, but I have never yet to see that box. It was a beautiful truck that he restored, and I remember when we picked it up I went along on the ride. It was my mom and my dad and Artie and my grandma, and we went to pick up this truck, and I remember wanting to ride home in that truck and it was cold and I don't believe there was any heater, and so mom overrode that decision. I did not get to ride in that truck, but dad would restore that, and Saturday evenings a lot of times it would be me, him and my brother, and we would go out for a ride around the county where we grew up in Kentucky. You were never allowed to step on those running boards though, and boy I knew that, so I never did, and to this day if I see an old classic pickup truck, it's like don't stand on the running boards, it's not a step, it's there for looks.

Speaker 1: 3:20

I don't have a lot of stories from my parents, except the ones I can remember, but Dad did leave a note behind of all the cars he had owned. I believe he favored the color green, because a lot of his cars were green and his big truck, his 67 Kenworth, was green. He would call it green. It was green and white when he originally bought it and then he painted it more green later in his life. But I was looking at this list of cars and these are not in any chronological order, I don't believe according to ownership. But there was a 40 Ford, two-door color green. There was a 36 Ford, two-door, black. Probably only came in black. There was a 30-something he didn't put the year a Chevy Coupe and it was gray. 30-something, he didn't put the year A Chevy Coupe and it was gray. There was a 41 Ford, two-door, it was black.

Speaker 1: 4:14

A 52 Plymouth hardtop, two-door, blue and white. There was a 48 Plymouth Coupe and it was what? Green. There was a 51 GMC 350, a 52 GMC 450, a 59 one-and-a-half ton EMC 450, a 59 one and a half ton, not sure what that was. There was a 48 international one and a half ton. There was a 56 Plymouth hard top I guess it says HT and it was white. There was a 50 something DeSoto. It was yellow and it was a coupe.

Speaker 1: 4:40

There was a 60-something Plymouth convertible and I remember this car and it was beige. I suppose it's the only convertible my parents ever owned. There was a 60-something Chevy four-door black Impala. There was a 57 Mack. It was red and black. There was a 58 Kenworth, black and red Maybe he had changed over to black and red in the trucking days but then a 64 Kenworth and it was black and red. There was a 67 Kenworth and that's the truck he finished up for 21 years for his trucking career. He retired after 40 years on the road and that 67 Kenworth sat in our backyard for another 21 years. I'll get to that story in a moment.

Speaker 1: 5:26

After we finish the cars, there was a 78 Chevy pickup truck. It was brown and cream. An 83 Chevy pickup truck and it was blue and silver. I remember those trucks because that's when I began to drive. There's the 46 Chevrolet pickup that I mentioned, that he restored. It was green and black. A 54 GMC 250. It was red.

Speaker 1: 5:48

For some reason he decided to buy three old BMWs. He managed to get one of them running over the years. I sort of wish we had those today and we could give them to Henry. But there was a 1980 BMW 320, an 83 BMW 320, and another 83 BMW 320. An 83 BMW 320, and another 83 BMW 320. None of them in great shape, but he tinkered on them constantly. In the driveway there was a 78 Olds station wagon. I drove that car quite a bit. There was a 98.4 Olds 98, and there was a 1988 Lincoln. He really liked that Lincoln and it was a neat car. I can't remember exactly what rent learned with it, but it sat on our driveway for a number of years.

Speaker 1: 6:30

He did not list the last car he owned. It was a green, of course, mercury Marquis. Not much of a car, I remember him saying, but it got us around. So that's the list I have in front of me. That's what he left behind. Weekends were spent getting the big truck ready to go out on the road, because that's what he did. He did his own maintenance on the truck before he would hit the road every week. He typically would leave on a Sunday and if we were lucky he was back on a Friday night, sometimes earlier in the day, but not usually. There were times he was gone for a couple weeks. He was a long-haul trucker owner-operator. They called him sort of an Back in In 2009,.

Speaker 1: 7:21

I was sitting on the carport and I mentioned to dad hey, we need to sell the truck. He had had an offer on the truck when he first retired. But you know, there was a small gap of $500 in what the buyer was willing to pay and what he wanted, so he opted to hang on to it. So it sat in our backyard for 21 years just sitting there, the big green machine. We called it. Well, we were sitting on the carport. I'm sure mom was ready for some of that stuff to move on. So I said, hey, dad, let me list this on eBay. I'm sure there's somebody out there that's a collector of trucks. He agreed. I'm not sure he ever got over me selling it, though I think he was kind of mad at me it though I think he was kind of mad at me, but hopefully he forgave me for that.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I wrote a note in 2009 and it sort of went like this this is a tribute to Cecil Neal of Pinot, kentucky, and all the truckers our family has known over the past 60 years. 21 years ago, the truck we grew to call the Big Green Machine pulled into Pinot for the last time, and on August 11, 2009, the truck left Pinot for the last time loaded on a trailer instead of being piloted by lifetime Pinot resident Cecil Neal. Cecil bought the truck new in 1967 and began the last 21 years of his trucking career in that truck. It was this truck that carried Cecil from the South Sands of Florida to the salts of Salt Lake City and all the places in between. When I was growing up, there were names like Fitz and Barker, tater Hawkshaw, beckett Bigfoot and Willie Big Cat Babs, who shared a love of the open road. As drivers of the big rigs from the 50s to the 80s, these were the guys who drove the trucks without power steering, trucks without air conditioning, trucks with clutches that would wear on even the strongest man's left leg and transmissions that took a certain finesse to shift. These were the men that delivered the goods that kept manufacturing plants humming, kept food on our tables and delivered the cars that were driven when Cecil was living.

Speaker 1: 9:27

If you had the time and you wanted to share some stories, cecil would certainly share some stories. He'll share the stories of the open road, the type of stories that you accumulate after being on the road away from home for some 38 plus years. If you had asked him how he got involved, the name of his uncle, alfred, might have come up. He hauled logs for his uncle and then one day he inquired about hauling cars for Dixie Transport. Rumor has it he had to change his driver's license to get the seat of that truck for Dixie. He never seems to be able to answer the question of how many miles he drove. I believe he actually knew, but he just was keeping that number to himself. He spent time running with partners in the truck, but for the last 17 or so years he was a solo driver, hauling all sorts of steel products. Nothing delayed or slowed him down, not rain or snow. He just moved on.

Speaker 1: 10:20

Dad would spend at least five days a week on the road, away from his wife and two boys. I would say that I regret dad being away so much and I'm sure we missed out on something, but he always made time for his family when he was home. Saturdays were always filled with getting the truck ready for another week. Cecil not only knew how to drive, but there wasn't much he couldn't repair. Mom would tell stories in the winter of when the house was a bit cold for days. Until Dad could repair the furnace, he could fix almost anything. Actually, he could fix anything. Even with air compressors and impact wrenches. Cecil would still change tires and wheels with a few simple tools, a body of joy, dishwashing liquid and a great deal of strength.

Speaker 1: 11:09

When the truck was for sale on eBay in July, one person commented According to my calculations, that truck would run well over 100 miles an hour. I asked Dad to confirm that fact and he simply replied yes, I suppose it might. He never really admitted going that speed, but just by the tone on the phone I knew the truck had been somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 miles an hour. The truck did sell to a guy who collects trucks. I'm yet to this day to be able to go and see that truck, but I did promise dad I would check on it, so I hope I'm able to do that at some point.

Speaker 1: 11:42

Every time I drive down the hill into Cincinnati heading home or I happen to be on the Florida Turnbike in the early morning I'm reminded of the summer of 1970. It was the summer that I would spend in the cab at the 67 Kenworth as Dad and Willie Babb delivered produce and frozen fish around the eastern part of the US. It was a summer I will never forget. It was a summer when I first discovered my love for the open road and the beauty that our country offers. If you only take the time to look around. There were times when dad would drive the back roads. It could have been to avoid the scales, I guess. I always thought he liked the beauty of the older road. It would be my guess. If he headed out today for Atlanta he might just run Highway 27 rather than I-75. So the next time you're on the road and a big rig needs a little extra room, remember the driver is probably someone's husband and father. For us, the big green machine might have left Pine Out for the last time, but the memories of that truck and its driver will live on forever.

Speaker 1: 12:43

I hope you picked up one thing from this and if you still have family living or even friends, and you want to know their stories, be sure to sit down, get their stories before it's too late. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Dan, the Road Trip Guy. I hope you enjoyed our journey today and the stories that were shared. If you have any thoughts or questions or stories of your own, I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to me anytime. Don't forget to share this podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations podcast with your friends and family and help us to spread the joy of road trips and great conversations. Until next time, keep driving, keep exploring and keep having those amazing conversations. Safe travels and remember you can find me on the internet at dantheroadtripguycom.