Cliff Ward's 1959 Chevy Apache Stepside

"Lonny"

05 June 2006
# 1543

From Cliff :

           Hi there gang. I have been putting this off way too long. The winter is over and "business" at the Hospital where I work is now starting to slow down so I can now send you the photo and story of my Bolt.

           I think it was about 1965 when I drove my first Bolt. She was a Dawn Blue 1959 Apache short bed stepside. Dad owned a fertilizer company in the cotton country of Levelland, Texas. He took me with him to work this day, gave me a Coke and I stood up on the bench seat waiting for Dad to come back out of his office. I must have gotten impatient and I pulled down on the gear shift, and thus started by first driving lesson. Dad tells me that he heard one of his employees yell, "Hey Lon. Your truck is MOVING and Cliffy is in it." I don't remember much, but Dad tells me abut three or four men started running after that '59 with me looking out the back window. The truck wound up across the street, hitting the door of one of my Dad's storage barns. Dad said the truck and barn doors were not really damaged that much, and as for me ... I didn't even spill my Coke.

           I always liked that old Bolt. Dad must have had a soft spot in his heart for it, too. Because when it came time for my second lesson (this time with Dad's permission), guess what? Dad went out to the barn and fired up the SAME old Bolt. He put some air in those really old tires and said "Okay, boy, let's learn how to drive."

           The speedometer didn't work. The seat was just about worn out. And the body had been repainted with white spray paint several years back. But she was to me ... the most beautiful truck in the world.

           Many many years passed and I let that old truck go for "faster and better" trucks but that old '59 Apache was always in my thoughts and I was sorry to have sold her off.

           So in 2005, I found this beautiful, old Dawn Blue 1959 Apache Stepside. I had a heart-to-heart with its owner and I found myself once again the proud owner of a True American Icon. This 1959 Classic takes me to work every day. She turns heads and makes old timers smile. I put in an A/C, radio and seatbelts, but that's about it. I like the ride and bumps that I remember as a boy. I like to look over the hood and then to the passenger seat and think of my Dad saying, "You're doing a good job there son ... just don't run into any barn doors."

Cliff Ward
"Cliff59"
Bolter # 9045
Mineral Wells, Texas