Uncle Pete Made Life Interesting
My Uncle Pete was an artist although no one would have guessed it
when they met him. He did not work with canvas, color pallets,
granite, or stain glass, but he was a wizard with an ax, chisel,
hammer and blow torch. I am sure that if he been had been born
a few years later, he would have been one of those famous folk
artists who are the toast of the town in New York and Paris.
Uncle Pete and his family lived next door to us in West Pratt. One
fall when he was out of work, he decided to become self employed.
He figured that since the weather was turning off cool, he could
haul coal for folks to make some money. The problem was he did not
own a truck. What he did have was an old 47 Chevy sedan. The old
sedan was a two-door and the top sort of sloped off toward the back
bumper. It resembled a turtle if you closed one eye and viewed the
vehicle from a distance.
Early on a Saturday morning, Uncle Pete pulled the car right up in
front of the old home place and started collecting his tools. All
the kids in the camp gathered around because when Uncle Pete started
a project, it was always interesting.
He started on top of the old Chevy just behind the front seat and
began whacking a single edge ax with a sledgehammer. He made a straight
cut right across the top and then used the blowtorch and the chisel
to cut the rest of the top off down to the back windows. There were
some tense moments as he cut around the gas tank with the torch,
but he completed the handiwork without fatalities.
He then ripped out the back seat and built a flat bed out of sawmill
lumber and fitted it to the assembly. He also built a wall that fitted
up against the back seat, which boxed in the cab of the homemade
truck. He cut a hole in the wall and installed an old window that
was intended for a house. It was a festive event for all the kids
because watching a truck take shape was something you did not see
every day.
After he had hammered down all the sharp edges and secured the wooden
bed, he got a pine top and a can of paint and started the final phase
of the project. All the kids wanted to help so Uncle Pete let us
all have a turn with the pine top. Before the sun went down that
evening, the truck and every kid in West Pratt was painted fire engine
red.
He painted the boards on the outside of the bed white, and on the
back fender (what was left of it), he painted the words: "Leapin
Lena." Not sure where he got the name but it seemed to fit somehow.
I did not realize it at the time, but Uncle Pete had built the very
first Chevy El Camino! Too bad he never got a patent on the design
because he could have lived out his later years in high cotton.
Uncle Pete did other projects after that, but none of them ever captivated
the kids of West Pratt like “Leapin’ Lena.”
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