The December holidays may be over, but I still have a taste for all of those seasonal goodies that surface around that time of the year. Just because the month and year “turn over” like an odometer for the new year, it doesn’t mean that my capacity to enjoy those holiday foods and treats turns off like a light switch. It’s not quite that easy. I wouldn’t call them withdrawal symptoms, but once all the decorations are put away (like they were last Friday) and the last of the sale-priced Christmas cookies have disappeared from the racks at the local grocery store, the returning ordinariness of non-special, cold days can sometimes be enough to again make me crave a fresh batch of baked goods. Before anybody gets too depressed, it’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this coming Monday, the 20th, so hopefully you have that day off from work and will be able to reflect even if just a little.
A lot of time spent indoors during winter affords me the opportunity to review and edit many of the photos I had taken over the course of the prior year. At the end of 2024, I had come across these pictures of the featured ’68 Chevy half-ton, and its paint color made me think immediately of the color of Big Reg cinnamon gum, which is an off-red and not the color of actual cinnamon, but it works. This is one of my favorite spices and one that I realize has always reminded me of the year-end holidays.
Cinnamon is present in so many things that are tied in my mind to this time of year: snickerdoodle and pfeffernüsse cookies, hot tea and cider, the eyes of gingerbread men and women, and before I gave up alcohol almost five years ago, shots of Fireball whiskey. I started trying to think of other cinnamon-flavored things that tend to show up during other seasons, and while I could make an argument for fall appearances in some cases, the constant was that the prevalence of cinnamon is definitely a cooler-weather phenomenon.
I’m being careful not to complain about the cold, given that on more than a few occasions even here at Curbside, I’ve mentioned my concerns about global warming, most recently last spring in a piece on an MN-12 Ford Thunderbird. With that said, I had to find out why cinnamon candy feels the best when it’s zero degrees outside. As it turns out, the cinnamon flavor of that Atomic Fireball jawbreaker contains a chemical called cinnemaldehyde (I did not just make up that word), an organic compound that activates the heat sensors in one’s mouth. To be clear, a mouthful of Red Hots won’t save you from hypothermia, but if properly dressed, I say there’s merit even in employing a mind-trick like eating cinnamon candy to make you think it’s not as cold outside. The heat factor is probably why most cinnamon-flavored things are colored red and not reddish-brown.
Last August, I was visiting the family of a friend and former neighbor who I’ve known since childhood in their beautiful, lakeside town of Lexington in eastern Michigan when this classic Chevy pickup passed us on Huron Avenue, one of the main streets that runs east and west and which terminates at Lake Huron. Sixty-seven was the first year of this design, and the front grille was changed for ’69, so given the presence of side marker lights, I’ve deduced that this one is a ’68. With a production span of just six model years, the “Action Line” generation of pickups had always seemed special when I would spot them in traffic as a kid, especially since the subsequent “Rounded Line” (many call them the “square-body”) model had been in production since before I was born and wouldn’t be replaced with the GMT400 until ’88 and when I was an adolescent – that is to say, a very long time.
Aesthetically, these strike the perfect balance between looking like semi-modern classics without seeming like relics, unlike the first-generation of C/K. They have a clean, purposeful look with smooth bodysides and a sensible looking face, much like the GMT400s appear today. They also had a high utility quotient with two pickup bed sizes of six-and-a-half or eight feet long in a choice of fleetside or step-side bed configurations, and increased rust and corrosion protection for when being used to get stuff done. There was also a wide range of powertrain options including six-cylinder engines displacing 250 or 292 cubic inches and three V8s: a 307, a 327, and a 396, as well as two manual transmissions with three or four forward gears and a three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic.
The Lexington House bed & breakfast.
Lexington is an idyllic slice of America located not far from Port Huron. Believe me when I tell you that I was not specifically looking for Chevy-sourced print materials or advertisements that also featured horses, farms and/or pine trees in the truck bed when I was putting this together. It all just sort of fell into my lap. The Currier & Ives-esque imagery in these brochures is something I feel had been sold to me as a youngster as representative of the most people’s experience of “true America”. For some of us, it can be hard to reconcile our own realities with these so-called ideals, especially during the holidays. At the same time, I think it’s perfectly okay to appreciate the beauty of a pastoral setting and their associated traditions as long as one’s not beating oneself up for not identifying with that experience, or for appreciating or even preferring one’s own urban surroundings.
I’m proudly a city kid and most comfortable in urban environments, but I can also appreciate a visit to a quiet, pretty, small town dotted with white picket fences, especially when also blessed with the opportunity to visit with good friends while doing so. This one may have turned out to be one of my “kitchen sink” essays, but what I hope to have conveyed as the overall theme is the sense of warmth that’s common to the sensations of cinnamon, historic villages, classic Chevy pickups, and the year-end holidays. Here’s hoping you are able to maintain the optimism of the good that is and also may yet be in the new year.
Lexington, Michigan.
Tuesday, August 13, 2024.
Brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
Seeing green leaves, even before consideration of anything cinnamon, was enough to warm a person up. We received 3″ of sleet capped with freezing rain and 5″ of snow nine days ago (all in one storm), and it is still sticking around, so anything warm is welcome. Then add in a nice old Chevrolet pickup…it helps overcome temperatures my grandfather (who purchased a red ’72 C-10 new) would describe as being colder than a well-digger’s hind leg.
While I have no sizable experience with this generation of Chevrolet, these always seemed better built than the square bodies, with which I have lots of experience. Perhaps that assessment is wrong, but the red one seen in the two ads is just about ideal – particularly if it has a 327. I’d take it over a square body any day.
Jason, just reading your description of that precipitation, and the fact that it’s still around, makes me think about walking extra flat-footed on these Chicago sidewalks. Like you, I don’t think I have any firsthand experience with any of these.
Square bodies rusted from the top down here in the salt air. Construction did seem inferior as far as sheet metal die work and panel gaps, rattles, etc. Dash was the first “car like” with lots of plastic, too. Due to emission controls, engines of that era didnt run as well, not a GM problem alone.
I will join Mr. Shafer in a preference for this generation of Chevy pickup over the square body. By every account I ever heard, these were really pleasant to drive and to live with.
I am not much on red cars, but recognize that red has been a great color on pickup trucks almost from the beginning. And I do enjoy spicy Cinnamon candy from time to time.
I wonder if the Squarebody might be considered more special if it hadn’t remained in production for fifteen model years (1973 – ’87). I will say that their basic body wore their periodic updates very well, and by the ’80s, their look still seemed very current with those rectangular sealed beams, etc. With that said and like I mentioned in the essay, the Action Line has always seemed more special to me, with just six model years’ worth ever having run around at any given point.
A friend in high school had a ’68 C-20 with the 396 and Turbo 400. That mostly pre-smog truck was…ahem…surprisingly agile. Another friend (who is my best friend to this day) drove his dads ’68 GMC 2500 with 327/THM400 it too was fun, it would wind to the moon. And yes there were differences between Chev and GMC in those days.
Awesome. And I’m sure I’m not alone in missing the increased differentiation between the corporate versions of similar platforms.
My favorite pickup trucks. When I was in high school, my dad had a ’67 C10 with a 283 and a three on the tree. It worked hard, drove great and actually rode decent. Coil springs for the win.
I may sound like a broken record sometimes, but I so enjoy reading about positive ownership experiences people have had with various subject vehicles. Thumbs up.
@Joseph: Shouldn’t it be “Big Red” gum? I utilized it a lot while driving on long trips to help me stay awake/alert. The only downside was that your tongue became somewhat numbed?! I also remember when you could buy the BIG sized Atomic Fireballs that would take up one side of your mouth; not the wimpy little ones of today. Then there was Tom’s HOT Chips, which would take the top of your head off. Recently, I’ve found that there are a lot of new EXTREMELY hot/fiery chips, etc. flooding the snack aisles; unfortunately, due to “OLD” I’m no longer able to tolerate them, LOL!!! Oh, well, All of these items provoke warm thoughts on a 30 degree morning, and the truck was great, too !!
Big Red gum was my reference – I thought that was stated, or at least implicit. You bring up a great idea though… I had never thought of cinnamon candy or hot foods as an aid or supplement to staying awake! I totally see this. I have tried some of those super-hot Taki’s chip things, and while they were very hot and peppery, the actual taste in that particular flavor variation wasn’t my favorite.
Make mine a long bed with the 292 six and the four speed.
I’d be curious to know what the actual production breakout of the different powertrain combinations was – or even if one combo had a particularly big take rate.
One of my favorites also. I had a chance to buy a ’72 C-20 Camper Special when a friend got posted to Japan by NSA, but bought his Pinto wagon instead… D’oh!!
Though raised in the outskirts of a big city – Baltimore – I escaped to college in a rural environment and never looked back. Got married and much preferring the country we raised 3 kids with lots of animals and 4H, horses were a major part of life. Had 2 Dodges, 2 Fords, and an IH (Cornbinder!) pickups, but never a Chevy. But wish I’d bought that ’72 C-20 and held onto it for occasional chores and lumberyard trips, it’d be expensive to buy now. In ’68 brand new they were actually pretty cheap, back before they became a lifestyle accessory.
You had no way of knowing then what the prices of the C-20 would do all these years later. Plus, I’m sure that the Pinto wagon saved you a bunch in fuel costs!
It’s interesting to me when I go back to Flint how the surrounding areas outside of the city proper seem like an expanding concentric circle of rural and semi-rural areas.
Can any of our more knowledgeable in our community explain the wide divergence in gross to net horsepower? I calculate from 90% to under 70% for the 390.
It varied considerably, with a trend of the gap widening over time. That’s because once upon a time there weren’t many things to drain engine power as installed, with just a water pump and generator and exhaust system mainly. In later years more accessory drives were installed, as well as crude emission systems that retarded ignition, might have had air pumps, etc.. The manufacturers did not adjust gross hp ratings on these early emission controlled engines, but clearly actual net hp was down. This is a generalization and not necessarily consistent.
Which 390 engine hp specs are you looking at? Are you sure they are apples-to-apples comparisons? The truck 390s had lower hp ratings than the ones installed in cars, as they were tuned differently. This was common on all the Big 3 V8s that they used in trucks vs. cars.
Mopar data point from the same era. ’69 Dodge 318 2v, 230hp gross 177hp net, ’66 273 2v, 180hp gross, 140hp net.
My late father once had an ex-NCDOT ’68 stepside with a 292 and a three-speed on the column and absolutely nothing else. He did the tune-ups in the driveway and kept it running for literally decades, until he had to swap it to the roofer to get a new roof on our house.
I’ve never wrenched a day in my life, but I love the idea that people used to be able to easily do their own repairs and maintenance. For me, that would also be one of those pride of ownership things, to be able to keep my car or truck running and save money in the process.
In ’85 I replaced a 49 Chevy pickup as my daily driver with a 68 C10, moved up 20 years but still 20 years behind the times. It was a short bed step side “camper special” from the factory it had a long and many times replaced 327, 4sp 373 posi rear overload springs and 6bolt 16″ wheels. It would haul/tow ANYTHING you could get on it and would do everything but stop, 4 wheel manual drum brakes! It was one of those trucks that never let you down because there was nothing that could go wrong 1 belt to run the alternator that was it! I tried to sell it in ’90 as I had too many trucks at the time but no one wanted a 20 year old truck. Ended up selling it to my BIL for $200, he traded it for a boat never to be seen again. Boy do I regret letting it go! AH the would’a should’a could’as of life.
The beauty of your ’68 C10 sounds like its simplicity and dependability. You would have probably had to let it go at some point, but think of the great service it gave you. That sounds like a solid win for both you and Chevrolet.
My second favorite style of Chevy/GMC truck. (First is the ‘60-66 GMC series with big block V6 engines).
We had a 72 C10 -350/automatic that my father purchased from a dealer who had used it as his personal ride. The old man and I installed A/C in it and and added an auxiliary gas tank; aside from tires and brakes I cannot recall any major repairs in the 15 or so years it was in the family. Well I do recall breaking a U joint doing something stupid. 🫢
Took many trips around the country with my sister and i in the back on modified lawn chairs. Towed our boat between Illinois and Lake of the Ozarks dozens of times. I later had it at college in early 80’s. Even though it was only 2wd, with judicious driving we never got it stuck in deep snow or muddy back roads.
The old man gave it to an uncle who was an oil jobber and had a couple gas stations. His employees treated it horribly and it died an inglorious death on a country road.
Sure wish I could find and afford a duplicate of this one.
Enjoyed reading this, Chad, and thanks for including the picture of the truck that was part of all of those adventures! Maybe you’ll find another like it someday.
Back in 1972 I got a job with landscape contactor.
He had 2 c chevys.one c20 cst cab red white top 4 speed.and one k20 custom cut
One had buckets center console rug they where sharp
Very cool. About twenty years after you, I also got a job with landscaping as part of it, and we used the GMT400 generation of C/K. That truck was a strip-o, but very capable and nice looking.
Very nice truck ! .
A decade or so ago I decided to buy one last shop truck and had the devil of a time finding a short bed step side i6 powered slushbox tranny GM truck, most seem to have been snatched up by Hot Rodders and modified .
Finally I found a cherry looking Forest Green 1969 C/10 in Texas on E-Bay, original paint that still looked okay, I bought it went there and drove it home to California .
It used nearly a case of 30W oil but didn’t smoke terribly and ran well, it had factory power steering as a plus .
I serviced and tuned it sharply as is my usual wont, added Bilstein HD gas shocks and at my son’s suggestion a set of Falken LT tires, they stuck to pavement like glue .
I began to work it and travel all over the West on my old cars road trips, during one I was up North jamming it far too fast down twisty farm to market roads running away from the vintage Sports Cars when the lateral forces ripped the cab off it’s lower mounts, surprise surprise ~ the seller didn’t tell me the whole rust story .
It took me a year to find an undamaged, un rusted cab with factory AC, I sent it off to a local restoration place who burned me to a crisp, the paint work was incredibly good but they returned it not running and I’m too mangled to crawl under the dashboard and finish the work they left undone so off it went, tears in my eyes .
I took a $50,000.00 bath but still have very fond memories of it while it lasted and I’d buy it back in a heartbeat but the guy who finished it won’t sell for love nor money .
I’d scared up fully restored Harrison HVAC and a factory tachometer (6 cylinder only !) plus all the new ball joints, seat and full set of factory wheels, whew ~ I wish I could at least see it again .
There’s something about a basic short bed work truck that will never leave me .
-Nate
Nate, this makes me sad. I know you did your due diligence, but it seems to me that what that shop did had to have been illegal (?). It certainly doesn’t sound ethical. I’m glad that you at least know where your former truck is.
That is an attractive truck in a nice shade of dark red. Also, if one weren’t going to have the stock wheels on their nearly 60 year old truck, I think that the ones the owner chose are rather nice.
Atomic fireballs and red hots nearly always remind me of a time in late elementary school/early junior high – which for me would have been when this truck was barely out of its warranty – when the selling of “cinnamon toothpicks” was a thing among kids. It was for some reason illicit behavior, but for a couple of years around the early 1970s some kid nearly always dealt little foil-wrapped packages of plain wooden toothpicks that had been soaked in cinnamon oil. I never cared much for them and took no real joy in sneaking one before a teacher noticed and demanded that you remove it (or worse, send you to the office for partaking). But I do know that it was a thing…both to partake and also to sell. And it’s those little illicit tin foil bundles that I always think of when thinking of cinnamon candy.
Oh, man, Jeff – I had forgotten about the cinnamon toothpicks! They were still anything by the time I hit elementary or middle school in the ’80s! Wow. I honestly don’t understand why toothpicks would be a problem, unless kids stabbed each other with them. Gum gets stuck to books, desks, etc., but toothpicks seem rather harmless. Or did.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane Jeff. Here in central Illinois the illicit cinnamon toothpick business was thriving at the same time you mention . I loved them and would buy almost daily from my “dealer”. Would have been early 70’s here too. In 1970 I would have been 11 yrs old.
I had the most basic ’71 C10 short bed Fleetside in avocado green, 250 six, three on the tree, radio block off plate, no rear bumper or spare, non-power front disc brakes.
Rebuilt a junkyard core 283 with an RV cam and exhaust headers, but otherwise stock. 13mpg with tired six, 17 with the V-8. Swap was surprisingly easy, fan shroud was only extra part needed, due to shorter length of the V-8. All coil rear suspension really worked well after replacing all the bushings.