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

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 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.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Dan the Road Trip Guy
, the podcast where we dive intothe stories that make life an
adventure.
I'm your host, dan Neal.
In each episode, I sit downwith my guests to chat about
their first cars, unforgettableroad trips, career journeys,
hobbies, bucket list dreams anda sprinkle of life advice every
now and then.
Whether you're a seasonedtraveler or just love a good

(00:21):
story, join us as we explore theroads less traveled and the
tales that come with them.
Buckle up and let's hit theroad.
Well, today I'm on a littleride down memory lane for myself
.
It all came with a conversationI had with a friend the other
night about antique cars,antique trucks, and it just

(00:42):
reminded me of my dad, and so Irecorded this episode to share
those memories with you.
And again, I'll encourage youif 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'stoo late.
If you've been a listener to mypodcast for any period of time,

(01:03):
you know it is about stories.
I love to hear people's storiesand I love to share those
stories.
A bit of this podcast is drivenfrom the fact that there's a lot
of lost stories for me thatwhen my parents both passed away
in 2014 and 2015,.
It's hard to believe it's been10 years and 9 years.
Dad passed away first.

(01:25):
He was diagnosed withAlzheimer's probably seven years
before he died.
I believe my brother wouldagree we had the best parents.
This time of year alwaysreminds me of them because they
always made sure and I'mguessing it was mostly mom, but
dad was a bit creative in hisgift giving, but mom was a big

(01:46):
gift giver, and so Christmasalways reminds me of her.
Last night, though, I wasreminded of my dad, and I struck
up a conversation with a friendand we began to talk about old
vehicles.
He had had an old OldsmobileCutlass, I believe it was that
he had sold and he had boughtsomething else, and it just

(02:07):
reminded me of dad, and it justreminded me of my own dad.
My brother and I still own his1946 Chevrolet pickup truck that
he restored on our carport Nota garage, but on a carport when
he was home on the weekends.
I don't recall how long thattook or how much he spent.
I remember mom saying all thereceipts were in a box someplace

(02:30):
, but I have never yet to seethat box.
It was a beautiful truck thathe restored, and I remember when
we picked it up I went along onthe ride.
It was my mom and my dad andArtie and my grandma, and we
went to pick up this truck, andI remember wanting to ride home
in that truck and it was coldand I don't believe there was

(02:50):
any heater, and so mom overrodethat decision.
I did not get to ride in thattruck, but dad would restore
that, and Saturday evenings alot of times it would be me, him
and my brother, and we would goout for a ride around the
county where we grew up inKentucky.
You were never allowed to stepon those running boards though,
and boy I knew that, so I neverdid, and to this day if I see an

(03:14):
old classic pickup truck, it'slike don't stand on the running
boards, it's not a step, it'sthere for looks.
I don't have a lot of storiesfrom my parents, except the ones
I can remember, but Dad didleave a note behind of all the
cars he had owned.
I believe he favored the colorgreen, because a lot of his cars
were green and his big truck,his 67 Kenworth, was green.

(03:37):
He would call it green.
It was green and white when heoriginally bought it and then he
painted it more green later inhis life.
But I was looking at this listof cars and these are not in any
chronological order, I don'tbelieve according to ownership.
But there was a 40 Ford,two-door color green.
There was a 36 Ford, two-door,black.

(03:57):
Probably only came in black.
There was a 30-something hedidn't put the year a Chevy
Coupe and it was gray.
30-something, he didn't put theyear A Chevy Coupe and it was
gray.
There was a 41 Ford, two-door,it was black.
A 52 Plymouth hardtop, two-door,blue and white.
There was a 48 Plymouth Coupeand it was what?

(04:17):
Green.
There was a 51 GMC 350, a 52GMC 450, a 59 one-and-a-half ton
EMC 450, a 59 one and a halfton, not sure what that was.
There was a 48 internationalone and a half ton.
There was a 56 Plymouth hardtop I guess it says HT and it
was white.
There was a 50 something DeSoto.

(04:38):
It was yellow and it was acoupe.
There was a 60-somethingPlymouth convertible and I
remember this car and it wasbeige.
I suppose it's the onlyconvertible my parents ever
owned.
There was a 60-something Chevyfour-door black Impala.
There was a 57 Mack.

(04:59):
It was red and black.
There was a 58 Kenworth, blackand red Maybe he had changed
over to black and red in thetrucking days but then a 64
Kenworth and it was black andred.
There was a 67 Kenworth andthat's the truck he finished up
for 21 years for his truckingcareer.
He retired after 40 years onthe road and that 67 Kenworth

(05:22):
sat in our backyard for another21 years.
I'll get to that story in amoment.
After we finish the cars, therewas a 78 Chevy pickup truck.
It was brown and cream.
An 83 Chevy pickup truck and itwas blue and silver.
I remember those trucks becausethat's when I began to drive.
There's the 46 Chevrolet pickupthat I mentioned, that he

(05:42):
restored.
It was green and black.
A 54 GMC 250.
It was red.
For some reason he decided tobuy three old BMWs.
He managed to get one of themrunning over the years.
I sort of wish we had thosetoday and we could give them to
Henry.
But there was a 1980 BMW 320,an 83 BMW 320, and another 83

(06:03):
BMW 320.
An 83 BMW 320, and another 83BMW 320.
None of them in great shape,but he tinkered on them
constantly.
In the driveway there was a 78Olds station wagon.
I drove that car quite a bit.
There was a 98.4 Olds 98, andthere was a 1988 Lincoln.
He really liked that Lincolnand it was a neat car.
I can't remember exactly whatrent learned with it, but it sat

(06:27):
on our driveway for a number ofyears.
He did not list the last car heowned.
It was a green, of course,mercury Marquis.
Not much of a car, I rememberhim saying, but it got us around
.
So that's the list I have infront of me.
That's what he left behind.
Weekends were spent getting thebig truck ready to go out on

(06:47):
the road, because that's what hedid.
He did his own maintenance onthe truck before he would hit
the road every week.
He typically would leave on aSunday 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 gonefor a couple weeks.
He was a long-haul truckerowner-operator.
They called him sort of an Backin In 2009,.

(07:21):
I was sitting on the carport andI mentioned to dad hey, we need
to sell the truck.
He had had an offer on thetruck when he first retired.
But you know, there was a smallgap of $500 in what the buyer
was willing to pay and what hewanted, so he opted to hang on
to it.
So it sat in our backyard for21 years just sitting there, the

(07:42):
big green machine.
We called it.
Well, we were sitting on thecarport.
I'm sure mom was ready for someof that stuff to move on.
So I said, hey, dad, let melist this on eBay.
I'm sure there's somebody outthere that's a collector of
trucks.
He agreed.
I'm not sure he ever got overme selling it, though I think he
was kind of mad at me it thoughI think he was kind of mad at

(08:06):
me, but hopefully he forgave mefor that.
I wrote a note in 2009 and itsort of went like this this is a
tribute to Cecil Neal of Pinot,kentucky, and all the truckers
our family has known over thepast 60 years.
21 years ago, the truck we grewto call the Big Green Machine
pulled into Pinot for the lasttime, and on August 11, 2009,
the truck left Pinot for thelast time loaded on a trailer

(08:29):
instead of being piloted bylifetime Pinot resident Cecil
Neal.
Cecil bought the truck new in1967 and began the last 21 years
of his trucking career in thattruck.
It was this truck that carriedCecil from the South Sands of
Florida to the salts of SaltLake City and all the places in
between.
When I was growing up, therewere names like Fitz and Barker,

(08:52):
tater Hawkshaw, beckett Bigfootand Willie Big Cat Babs, who
shared a love of the open road.
As drivers of the big rigs fromthe 50s to the 80s, these were
the guys who drove the truckswithout power steering, trucks
without air conditioning, truckswith clutches that would wear
on even the strongest man's leftleg and transmissions that took

(09:15):
a certain finesse to shift.
These were the men thatdelivered the goods that kept
manufacturing plants humming,kept food on our tables and
delivered the cars that weredriven when Cecil was living.
If you had the time and youwanted to share some stories,
cecil would certainly share somestories.
He'll share the stories of theopen road, the type of stories

(09:36):
that you accumulate after beingon the road away from home for
some 38 plus years.
If you had asked him how he gotinvolved, the name of his uncle
, alfred, might have come up.
He hauled logs for his uncleand then one day he inquired
about hauling cars for DixieTransport.
Rumor has it he had to changehis driver's license to get the
seat of that truck for Dixie.

(09:57):
He never seems to be able toanswer the question of how many
miles he drove.
I believe he actually knew, buthe just was keeping that number
to himself.
He spent time running withpartners in the truck, but for
the last 17 or so years he was asolo driver, hauling all sorts
of steel products.
Nothing delayed or slowed himdown, not rain or snow.

(10:18):
He just moved on.
Dad would spend at least fivedays a week on the road, away
from his wife and two boys.
I would say that I regret dadbeing away so much and I'm sure
we missed out on something, buthe always made time for his
family when he was home.
Saturdays were always filledwith getting the truck ready for
another week.

(10:39):
Cecil not only knew how todrive, but there wasn't much he
couldn't repair.
Mom would tell stories in thewinter of when the house was a
bit cold for days.
Until Dad could repair thefurnace, he could fix almost
anything.
Actually, he could fix anything.
Even with air compressors andimpact wrenches.

(10:59):
Cecil would still change tiresand wheels with a few simple
tools, a body of joy,dishwashing liquid and a great
deal of strength.
When the truck was for sale oneBay in July, one person
commented According to mycalculations, that truck would
run well over 100 miles an hour.
I asked Dad to confirm thatfact and he simply replied yes,

(11:19):
I suppose it might.
He never really admitted goingthat speed, but just by the tone
on the phone I knew the truckhad been somewhere in the
neighborhood of 100 miles anhour.
The truck did sell to a guy whocollects trucks.
I'm yet to this day to be ableto go and see that truck, but I
did promise dad I would check onit, so I hope I'm able to do

(11:40):
that at some point.
Every time I drive down the hillinto Cincinnati heading home or
I happen to be on the FloridaTurnbike in the early morning
I'm reminded of the summer of1970.
It was the summer that I wouldspend in the cab at the 67
Kenworth as Dad and Willie Babbdelivered produce and frozen
fish around the eastern part ofthe US.

(12:01):
It was a summer I will neverforget.
It was a summer when I firstdiscovered my love for the open
road and the beauty that ourcountry offers.
If you only take the time tolook around.
There were times when dad woulddrive the back roads.
It could have been to avoid thescales, I guess.
I always thought he liked thebeauty of the older road.
It would be my guess.
If he headed out today forAtlanta he might just run

(12:24):
Highway 27 rather than I-75.
So the next time you're on theroad and a big rig needs a
little extra room, remember thedriver is probably someone's
husband and father.
For us, the big green machinemight have left Pine Out for the
last time, but the memories ofthat truck and its driver will
live on forever.
I hope you picked up one thingfrom this and if you still have

(12:46):
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.

(14:44):
Thank you for tuning in to Dan,the Road Trip Guy.
I hope you enjoyed our journeytoday and the stories that were
shared.
If you have any thoughts orquestions or stories of your own
, I'd love to hear from you.
Feel free to reach out to meanytime.
Don't forget to share thispodcast with your friends and
family and help us to spread thejoy of road trips and great
conversations podcast with yourfriends and family and help us

(15:05):
to spread the joy of road tripsand great conversations.
Until next time, keep driving,keep exploring and keep having
those amazing conversations.
Safe travels and remember youcan find me on the internet at
dantheroadtripguycom.