Keep on Truckin'

Remember the smell of the first car you owned as a kid?

How the steering wheel felt in your hand or how good the air blowing through your hair felt as you drove to your best gal's house on Friday night, music blaring as the rubber met the road?

For most people, getting that first car back years later is, at best, nothing but a dream. Thanks to Carl Kaasa's son Dale, Carl can dream while he drives his old 1946 Chevy Pickup up and down the strip this summer, the first rig he ever owned as a young man growing up in Saco.

Last Saturday at Malta's Trafton Park, members of Carl Kaasa's family, along with a swarm of friends, met for a potluck picnic. When the roasted pig had all been eaten and everyone's bellies were full, Dale brought out a dessert that was sweeter than any pie Carl has likely ever tasted.

"That's really something," Carl beamed after seeing the truck on Saturday. "That's really something."

Carl's surprise with the truck on Saturday afternoon was nearly as big as Dale's when he figured out he had his father's old truck sitting in a lot.

"I didn't know it at the time, but I have had my Dad's very first vehicle in my possession for a long time," Dale said in an interview over a month ago. "He is 86-years-old and I have totally and completely restored it for him and am giving it to him that Saturday."

About two years ago, Dale received a call from his Uncle Art telling his nephew he was thinking of selling the farm he'd grown up on with his brother, Carl. Since Dale is a 'car guy,' Art asked if he'd be interested in coming out to get all the old vehicles that were sitting around on the land.

Dale jumped at the offer.

Dale and a few friends spent a few weeks hauling the cars back to Malta and three of the vehicles – old, beat-up pickups – where eventually placed at the corner of 1st Street and 5th Ave – near Equity Co-op, where Dale works -- for a spell. But the truck furthest south on the three-truck convoy held a surprise for Dale. Dale was always under the impression that the truck in question was his uncle's. That was not the case.

"I had it sold, twice, but both guys backed out," Dale said. "I decided that I was really going to sell the thing so I brought it up here to the shop, put some wheels on it to make sure it would roll and spent about eight hours cleaning all the mice out of it since it has been sitting out in a field since about 1955 or 56."

Dale brought the pickup back to his house and left it on a trailer. Carl stopped by Dale's house one afternoon and saw the rig up on the trailer.

"He said 'so, you are going to sell the old pickup'," Dale recalled. "I told him I was and that I wanted to make sure it would roll on and off a trailer."

Dale questioned his father on the title of vehicle, still thinking it was his uncle's. Carl told Dale that he thought the title had burned in a house fire years ago, long after he had sold the truck to his brother.

"Then he says 'it was my pickup originally'," Dale said. "And then he told me the story of when he bought the truck, which was the first vehicle he'd ever owned."

Carl told a story about how he and his father – Dale's grandfather – had driven to Saco to buy the truck in 1948. The truck stayed in the family and was eventually left for dead on the family farm.

"It had been sitting on the farm forever," Dale said. "When I found out that the truck was once his, and it was the first truck he'd ever known, I thought to myself 'thank God I didn't sell it'. Then the light bulb came on and I knew what I wanted to do with it."

Dale got ahold of the state of Montana and was told that the truck had sat in a field for over 60 years that they would simply issue a new title for the vehicle. Dale said he "conned" Carl into going to the bank and signing a bill of sale so that he could begin restoring the truck. Dale took the motor from a 1995 Chevy S10 and had it dropped into Carl's '46. He had all new glass put into the truck, added air-conditioning, all new gauges, tires and wheels and interior and slammed it to the ground.

"I have had it in my garage just waiting to give it to him at the reunion," Dale said. "As far as he knows, I sold it and it is long gone."

Luck struck again for Dale in his quest for restoration when he happened upon the truck's original license plates as they were both affixed to the front and back of the truck.

"I found those while I was cleaning it up," said Dale. "And then I found the original crank to start the motor and repurposed it so that it is now used to raise and lower the spare tire and I also found his original key ring, with a 1947 penny in it, so I think the whole thing is pretty awesome. I can't wait for him to drive it all summer."

Dale kept the truck hidden from his father by hauling it to Trafton in a trailer, but keeping the vehicle a surprise was not as simple as keeping it tucked away for a single day. Since completing the restoration, Dale has been keeping the truck tucked away in his garage.

"He has almost caught me a couple of times when he stops by the house," he said. "After the first couple of times I decided I would keep the door to the garage locked so he wouldn't put it all together."

To say Carl was surprised when the big reveal happened on Saturday afternoon would be an understatement. As far as the truck and how it handled, Carl was happy with that as well.

"It's better than what it was when it was brand new," Carl said.

Dale was happy with how the entire day played out.

"I don't think we have ever had a family reunion that I can remember," Dale said. "I figured this would be a nice exclamation point on the day."