Back in the day (50's/60's) female truck owner/builders were a rarity but as we all know, over time things do change to where today it's not unusual to see a "lady trucker" cruise into an event in a truck that she built or helped to build.
Back in the 70's Frank Swartz from Maderera, Pa was a die-hard motor head who never had 2nd thoughts about driving 2, 3 hundred miles to show his tricked out 1959 Chevy El Cameo. Whenever Frank pulled out of the driveway for a show his 5 yr old daughter Melanie had herself planted in the seat next to him. Today 50 + yrs later Frank is still showing that same El Camino & the only thing that has changed between him and his daughter the last 50 yrs is that she now follows close behind him with her ride.
Melanie (who prefers being called Mel) loved going to the car shows back in the day & like her father became addicted to them at a very young age. So addicted that in 2012 she hosted her 1st of many Charity Car Shows (MelsCar Shows@gmailcom) which to date has raised over $55,000.00 for local Charity's
Like her father Mel was a "gear head" from the get-go. After getting her driver's license at the age of 16 she bought several old classics to drive & "tinker" with one of which was a 1972 Monte Carlo that she & her new husband Jared drove on their honeymoon. Sometime after the honeymoon they found that they needed a 2nd car to drive to their jobs every day, so the Monte Carlo was sold & replaced with a newer Monte Carlo & a 1988 Corvette which 6 months later was destroyed by a electrical fire.
While Melanie loved all cars, when she 1st started going to the shows with her father, she fell in love with the old Chevy trucks with the "bubbly fenders" & dreamed of someday owning one.
Knowing that her childhood dream ride was most probably out of reach for her financially it never kept her from surfing the classifieds on the internet to see if she could find one such truck. On one of her many internet searches she finally came across one of those "bubbly fendered" trucks listed on the Truck Round-Up web site.
While she had found several trucks on her earlier search's they all were out of reach 1000's of miles away. What made the Truck Round-up listing so special was that it was less than 100 miles away. The seller was asking $15,000.00 or possible trade for something "interesting". Knowing that "money wise' the truck was out of her reach she asked her husband Jared if they could at least go look at it.
Unknowingly, to her with a birthday coming up, Jared had been searching the classifieds also & found the "same truck" listed for sale or trade in Cover, Pa, a scant 2 hrs away. After getting off from their jobs Fri aft noon they hopped in Jared's 2000 Corvette & headed east over the mountains towards Cover. When they arrived at their destination a truck like the one Mel Dreamed of someday owning was sitting in the driveway.
After checking it out, they took it for a drive to see if it drove & rode as good as it looked. On their return trip Mel couldn't pull herself out from behind the wheel so the owner laughingly told her take it for another ride.
Still unaware that her husband had found the same truck listed on the internet that she had, & that he & the owner had worked out a trade deal with his Corvette earlier she had no idea that her childhood dream of someday owning a "bubbly fendered" truck was about to be realized.
If you have or are building or driving an "old truck" like Mel's, we would like to feature it in Truck Roundup's New Truckers" column. For more info contact: ?????????