1973 Chevy C10 – Dawn M.

Old Green: A Family Tradition
Ed Johnson and His 1978 Chevy Pick Up Truck

As long as I can remember, my Uncle Ed has had “Old Green,” his 1978 Chevy Truck. When he bought her used in 1981 she had about 15,000 miles on her. He paid $3500 cash for her and drove her home where she became a member of the family. Ed took Old Green on family camping trips with his children, Stacy and Justin. When Stacy, his oldest was learning how to drive, Ed took her on back roads and taught her to navigate the three on the tree without choking her down. When Stacy married and had her first baby girl, Kaila she needed to borrow Old Green to have a reliable vehicle and the truck served her and the grandbaby well. One time, Stacy was teaching her husband, Jody how to drive her without hanging the gears up and he got her caught in neutral. Stacy hopped out of the cab and lifted up the hood and unhung the gears without a hitch. She told Jody when he asked her how she did it that, “My daddy taught me how to do that!”
A few years later, Old Green was used again when Ed’s son, Justin needed to learn how to drive and she helped him earn his license. When the second granddaughter, Emilee arrived, Old Green was getting up in years and was showing some of her age…. her bench seat was worn and faded and the dash had cracked and bent in places. There were a few times when Ed and his sweet wife, Brenda picked up the girls in Old Green and they were not too sure about riding around in her.

One Friday night on a shopping trip to the mall little Emilee said, “Papa I am ashamed to ride in this truck with the dashed cracked like that.” Ed said, “Well, honey you can put a paper bag over your head and you won’t be embarrassed no more.” We all still laugh at that one. Old Green might not have been the prettiest girl on the road, but she was dependable. He said she always got him home and never left him on the side of the road. She was always there when Ed or any one of our family members needed her and she never once let us down.

We come from a large family, and by large, I mean LARGE. My uncle Ed is one of nine children my grandparents had and out of all of my aunts and uncles, he is the one who is always there for us, any of us, when we need him. Old Green has been part of his ministry to our family. She’s been there when my Aunt JoAnn needed to be picked up from the hospital, she was there when my Uncle Marion needed a truck to get him back and forth to work, she’s been there to cart food trays, paper products, and most of all the comfort of my Uncle Ed’s presence to homes where both blessings and sadness have occurred. Just laying eyes on Old Green and my Uncle Ed sitting in the cab will bring a smile to your face and a piece of comfort to you.

Not too long after Old Green helped Kaila learn how to drive with Uncle Ed’s patient voice guiding her to “Mash the clutch down now, girl!” and “Ease her into second,” he was pulling up to a stop sign in town right off the interstate and was hit in the back. Thank goodness my Uncle Ed was okay. The good Lord was with him and he stepped out of the cab, shaken but okay. Sadly, Old Green didn’t make it. She was totaled with a bent frame and crushed glass. Amazingly the junkyard gave Uncle Ed $3,000 for her, just a few hundred off what he paid for her. We all thought Old Green was worth a lot more. She was irreplaceable.
We learned though, that God provides. A few years back, my cousin called Uncle Ed when he found a 1973 Chevy truck that looked a lot like Old Green for sale in North Carolina. He thought Ed could use her for spare parts to fix Old Green up. She sat there in the spare bay of Ed’s garage waiting on him when he came home from the junkyard. The body and interior looked good but had no motor and needed some fixing up. Each week this spring the men in my family have joined Uncle Ed in my dad’s garage work to fix the ’73 up, and that has been a blessing too.

Ed shows up each morning with a sack full of warm Hardee’s biscuits. Most mornings he swings by and picks up his brother, Pete who recently had a stroke and is wheelchair bound but loves to lean over the side and help. Ed and his brothers are all retired now and they enjoy having this project together. They all love working on cars because they grew up not having much in the form of money, but having everything in the form of family. They’ve all had old cars they’ve helped each other fix up and get on the road to work and to their families. In the past few months, they’ve worked to put a new motor in the ’73, a new back bumper and hood, and all new gauges and indicators inside. Almost everything came from LMC.

I can’t wait to see him ride out of my dad’s garage in his ’73 all shined up and ready to go help the next granddaughter, little Rossalyn Mae learn how to shift gears and ease her into second!