Saturday, October 18, 2025
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To promote The Jackie Gleason Show, Jackie Gleason chartered a train and went on a cross-country tour.
“The five-car Gleason special, which cost $90,000 for the ten day trip, carried his company of TV performers and a six-piece jazz band.”
I fact checked this... it's amazing and true
This man's name is Calvin Vincent, and he has a 1977 model Chevy truck.
This is what he said," I bought this truck new in 1978 at Mayville Motor Company in North Dakota. I have used it in my construction business ever since then. This truck has pulled equipment on construction trailers, and has been a work horse for the last 29 years. The transmission was replaced once, and the short block twice, but most of this truck is still original. I still use it everyday. I have had a long-lasting and rewarding experience with my Chevrolet."
if that truck got 16 mpg
2048402/16=128025.125 gallons of diesel run through that engine
at an average of 2 bucks a gallon 128025.125x2=236050.25 bucks spent on diesel alone
But he wondered if he had a lemon on his hands when Kenny Forsgren called a few months later to say his 1978 Scottsdale 10 half-ton pickup had been recalled.
Calvin, who operates Vincent Construction, got a new engine block and hit the road again, traveling all over the Great Plains, putting up steel buildings and grain elevators, as well as running ready-mix cement plants on construction sites from Brownsville, Texas, to the Canadian border.
"I'd put on 100- or 150,000 miles a year on that truck, easy," he said. "It never stopped running. I'd be in Montana one day and drive to Iowa the next, then go to Texas and back," he said. "I had 1 million miles on it before Kenny conned me into putting in a new 1985 diesel."
That old truck is still running today another 1 million-plus miles later.
Calvin has slowed down just a bit in the past few months, after a heart overhaul triple bypass surgery in June. He missed a trip to Texas in August, where he was one of nine people from across the country honored as a member of the Chevrolet Silverado 200,000-Mile Club.
That's 200,000, not 2 million.
With mileage documentation to back it up, Kenny's son convinced Calvin to tell his story for the Chevy promotion.
On Tuesday, he received another plaque from the company, presented at Finley Motors in Finley, N.D. Finley Motors now operates the former Mayville Motors.
"I was hoping they were going to give me a new truck," he joked.
Not that he really needs one.
"When I'm not working, I'm not driving," he said, "so I don't need anything else."
Calvin seldom trades his vehicles. The yard at his construction office in Hannaford is filled with old pickups and cement mixers, most of them Chevys. He still has the 1973 Chevy pickup he was driving when he bought his '78.
Besides the engine replacements, Calvin has had just one other major repair on the truck a transmission overhaul.
"The rear end's never been touched," he said.
Calvin says he's a Chevy, "like a rock."
He's been mayor of Hannaford for nearly 40 years and was re-elected last week to another term.
"I never ran once," he said. "I always won on write-ins," he said.
Currently in production, "The Stunt Driver" has Ed Helms playing a brilliant car engineer brought on to design a rocket-powered vehicle for what may be the most dangerous stunt in history.
The film is based on the true story of Montrealer Carter, the “Mad Canadian” stunt driver who tried to jump the Saint Lawrence River in a rocket car in the mid-’70s. Ken’s dream was to end his 30-year career with a big jump, a big paycheck, and mega stardom. In the process of accomplishing it, he hired a big sports manager and enlisted the best in rocket car designHelms brings great depth and heart to the man in charge of safety for this massive jump, an island of reason in a sea of insanity.
I came across a 1909/1915 signpainting book on Ebay, there are a lot of copies for sale for outrageous prices none of us are going to pay, but, this book has really great examples of the ways eyecatching signs were made with flourishes and cool techniques
the cleanest copy is https://www.ebay.com/itm/267308359471
another with other pages displayed is https://www.ebay.com/itm/235961627791
other places to buy are ABEBooks https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=31682787441"This book brings Atkinson's 96 sample sign designs to life. Atkinson Reproduced in Color presents all 96 plates, fabricated and painted as Atkinson described."
and this, on Thriftbooks is possibly the same book with a different cover
for only 23 to 35 dollars on Ebay, Etsy, and Thriftbooks
but for 1/8th the price of those books everyone is trying to get 180 dollars for, this one is about 25 on Amazon... but again, no look inside of the pages for a good comparison
Frank H. Atkinson lived in Chicago and worked mostly for Cadillac. https://luc.devroye.org/fonts-52976.html
So, I guess they must have figured that once they perfected it as a machine, then they'd figure out how to make it useful to the military. The Lauster Wargel LW3, Adolf Lauster & Co, 1943
similar in design to the Tsar Tank https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/07/russian-lebedenko-tank-prototype-of.html, also a banner in 2019
the ingenuity utilized during “The Depression”, to keep tires in use once they had blown. Kids would use oats or cottonseed in bicycle tires because they couldn't afford inner tubes during the depression too, and soak them in water to swell the material
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10233927740107755&set=a.1590567076712
Friday, October 17, 2025
Good news! I just heard from the son of the drag racer in this photo, he's alive and well!
I posted this and 2 other cool dragsters in 2009 from Hot Rod magazine... and just today, Oct 17 2025, got this note from his son!
That's my dad there. Dan Millard Sr. I'm the Junior. He is still thriving at nearly 90
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