(first posted 4/11/2018) I love visiting Las Vegas as much for enjoyment of some of its many excesses as for cultural observation. It has also occurred to me that I might, in the same way, be the “observee” in the eyes of other another tourist. Though my trips there are usually for participation in an annual reunion of a group of close-knit friends who no longer all live in the greater Chicago area, I also like to take one afternoon to branch off by myself with my camera. I feel as though my sense of what constitutes the “real” Las Vegas has mostly eluded me, as most places at which my friends and I have stayed or visited are, admittedly, tourist traps.
There’s comfort in knowing that the Strip and historic downtown areas generally have lots of security and police presence, which makes sense, given that tourism is a huge economic engine for this region. However, I am always curious about the everyday lives of everyday people, in places away from the popular destinations. My dad had been a professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Michigan. I suppose the interests of this apple didn’t fall far from that tree.
On one such afternoon foot-trek, I found myself in Huntridge Park near the historic Huntridge Theatre. This beautiful Streamline Moderne-style building has been closed to the public since July 31, 2004 after having been open for close to sixty years. It remains my hope that it will get the renovation it deserves. I took a few photos of it before ducking into nearby Tacos Mexico (housed in an old, Googie-era former Denny’s) for some of the tastiest inexpensive tacos I had eaten in a long time.
While walking near the main intersection of East Charleston and Maryland Parkway close by, our featured truck appeared in traffic. Between my delicious lunch and the sight of this old Ford, it was at this very moment that I realized I had just experienced some of the realest Las Vegas since first going to that city four years prior. I was simply on an extended Superbowl Sunday weekend vacation with my friends, but there were, indeed, people hard at work on the job on a Monday.
Of course, all kinds of work happens around the clock, everywhere and all the time. To further clarify, I suppose it had dawned on me even more so in those fifteen seconds while this Ford passed by that there are many people in Las Vegas who work at jobs that aren’t glamorous (not that my insurance work is remotely sexy and/or exciting), far from chasing lightbulbs, stacks of chips, glitter and martinis.
This F-250 seemed to embody the kind of honest blood, sweat and tears of manual labor. I might have mentioned this in a previous post, so please forgive me if it sounds like the needle is skipping on the record, but I worked as a groundskeeper and landscaper at two different golf courses off and on for about five years, starting in my late teens. In addition to tending to fairways, greens, tees and approaches using various, specialized riding mowers, planting trees and shrubs, and using hoes, shovels, and other gardening hand-tools, I also occasionally operated a tractor and front-end loader (reasonably well, I might add).
That job remains one of my favorites of all time. There was something so satisfying about doing something with my hands (besides typing), and seeing with my own eyes the finished result of something I had diligently worked on. There was also the fresh air, the sun on my skin, the smell of newly cut grass, and the sound of wind rushing through the trees. I would come home fatigued often times, but cracking open a cold beer after work has never tasted better since those days.
On particularly warm and sunny days at the office, I often wish we could open the windows instead of being sealed inside, being held hostage to the HVAC system in our glassy, geometric box of a building. I will concede that air conditioning is a blessing, as it can get very hot in Chicago during the summer, even in that northern city on a gigantic lake.
I suppose the sight of this truck, which looked like a real, honest-to-goodness work truck – complete with a replacement hood sans side marker lights, reminded me of several things. Firstly, I was fortunate enough not to be at work that day, and to be employed at a job where I could afford to take a trip like this in the first place. Also, it takes all kinds of work and workers to make the world go round. Everyone’s craft is important, each and every one of us, no matter what it is we do. Lastly, age is inevitable. This old F-250 looks like it has been worked a lot. It could be said that long after one’s youth, vigor and looks have begun to fade, one had still better be good at doing something.
Las Vegas, Nevada.
Monday, February 8, 2016.
Related reading:
- From Ed Stembridge: Curbside Outtake: 1970 Ford F-250 Sport Custom Camper Special;
- Jim Grey: CC Capsule: 1970 Ford F-250 – Montana To Indiana Or Bust; and
- Jason Shafer: Curbside Classic: 1970 Ford F-100 – The Driving Force of an Addiction.
Why did they stop making the box storage on pickups? Always seemed a good idea, other than the top box rail storage on Rams, truck box utility has gone backwards. Long boxes are a rarity, and unless you get a upfitter box and custom spec it, you don’t get much utility nowadays.
Just my experience, but those under the bed side boxes never stayed dry so everything in them turned into a rusty mess. Living in salt country, they were another place for rust to get a foothold.
Sure if it was steel like in the old days. Motor homes have used poly tubs for basement storage for over twenty years. No reason not to add utility if it’s crafted well without the up fitter. If this was the sixties I do get your point, but there is a lot of wasted space on my 8 foot box f350.
I drove a 70 F100 for many years, and even in (relatively) dry Phoenix water managed to get in to the tool box. Also learned not to carry a bottle jack in there as oil escaped to make a mess. Some folks would remove the box and replace it with an aftermarket sidesaddle tank.
Agree with MaxKlinger below that the 70 was the best grille, my second choice would be 72.
As much as I loved these old Ford trucks, I’ll stick with my 2003 Silverado for a daily driver.
I like the drawers that have been added to this one.
Ford did try the mid bed truck box option for a while. I think part of its problem was that you had to go to an upfitter to install the mid box of choice so dealers just didn’t bother with stocking them. They probably don’t want a truck with a big hole in the middle of it and didn’t want to do a spec on the upfit. I think I’ve only ever seen one in the wild.
This looks an awful lot like the 72 F-250 my BIL was driving the first time I met him, right down to the color combo. He was still in college then, and would eventually take his agricultural economics degree back to the family farm. He has had a long series of Ford trucks in the intervening years but never one as good looking as that 72.
Thanks for this view of Vegas that most of us will never see.
Oh wow, I found this truck’s older brother about five years ago. Right down to the storage door on the side of the bed.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1969-ford-f-100-ranger-faded-but-still-glorious/
“Oh wow, I found this truck’s older brother about five years ago”
Oh yeah? Well I found it SIX years ago. 🙂 This just reminds me that I have oodles of cars photographed that I have never gotten around to writing up. And new ones keep appearing, so I don’t suppose you and I will run out of subjects any time soon.
I have not seen it around since, I hope it hasn’t collapsed into a big pile of iron oxide in the owner’s driveway.
Same truck?? That’s just awesome.
And Jim, I hope you saw that I linked the other one you had written up.
Beautiful truck..reminds me of this one that lives here in the Falls..later model though.
Nice to see an old honest to goodness ‘work truck’ still going about its business. Interesting that the décor in the restaurant matches the truck’s color scheme.
This is very cool. Reminds me of the Ford pickup I used to drive during my summer job as a welder’s helper. I got pretty good at backing up the pickup with a diesel welder trailer.
You totally hit the nail on the head re: Las Vegas. Interesting cultural experience, and you can see the desperation below the veneer of glitz. Element hotel in west LV was nice to get away from the schtick before departing to visit the National Parks…
Thanks, Doug. I wish I had retained some of those skills I had learned on the job back then, but being so long out of practice, I would probably destroy something expensive inadvertently.
“The desperation below the veneer of glitz” is precisely what fascinates me so much. It really seems to be a city of extremes – though to be fair, many cities are like that, including right here in Chicago. Such wealth and such poverty, all within so many square miles of the third largest city in the U.S.
My wife loved Vegas . 17 trips in the space of 15 years ! . We always stayed at the Mirage, and spent our time (and money) at the seedier places O’sheas , Casino Royal , and the Barbary Coast. We would be home a month, and my wife would be planning the next Vegas excursion.
We always included a trip to Fremont Street . I would tell the Cabby “don’t take the Freeway, I’ll pay the extra fare to drive the streets ”
Just witnessing 25-30 year old vehicles functioning as a daily driver, was a buzz to a car enthusiast like myself.
Mikey, I’m not far behind you and your wife in terms of annual visits since my first trip to Vegas! I missed 2017 and 2014, but made up for it with two trips in 2016. 🙂
Your last sentence perfectly encapsulates why Vegas speaks to a car lover like me. Often times when I’ve been walking around, I’ve had to choose between one or more classic cars to shoot in traffic. As I was getting shots of this Ford F-250, there was a last-generation Ford Ranchero (!!) also passing by, of which I managed only one shot.
Thanks, Joe. It’s good to see any of these old Fords out and about, still doing their thing.
This being a ’70 model makes it all the better.
“a replacement hood sans side marker lights”
Hood-side emblems on 68-72 Ford trucks have a reflector, and are not backlit from the factory. A few customizers have had them backlit as a marker light, but on an individual basis. 1967-only hood side emblems do not have a reflector.
Everything you wanted to know about ’67-’72 Ford trucks at Fordification.com.
Proud owner of a ’72. I personally think the 1970 grilles were best.
The 67 thru 72 Ford variations are all good, classic sturdy truck bits. But 73 is my fave, a little bit of a new look. I drove an almost new 73 250 Long bed for a couple of years carrying very heavy things to coal mines in the hinterlands of Alabama. Handled the hills and dirt roads and the loads (crates of big drill bits in army surplus machine gun boxes, axles for underground mining equipment). The summer heat I just dealt with. Nothing ever broke, though, except the back bumper that got scuffed by being pushed out of the mud by a big caterpillar bulldozer piloted by the battered WW2 vet with half his place replaced by plastic.
Awesome – thanks for both the clarification and the reference.
It’s always fun to go off the beaten… uhh, strip in Vegas. I think I was first curious about the rest of the city from playing GTA: San Andreas and visiting “Las Venturas”. Since then, I’ve done a bit of Google Street Viewing… the outskirts in particular are fascinating. I had an acquaintance who lived in Vegas and she said the best thing was the absence of bugs.
I was telling Jason about a spooky experience involving one of these trucks. The other day around dusk, one came slowly driving down the road as I was walking home, its V8 growling, and its headlights were flickering erratically, although they rarely got bright. Something about it was unnerving, like the truck was possessed. It drove past and I turned onto my street… and it was there! Still flickering. The driver looked a little scary too. Very odd experience, I’ve never seen headlights flicker like that.
Will, that sounds truly terrifying to someone who was genuinely spooked out by movies like “Christine” (see today’s lead-off post) and “The Car”.
(BTW, it is so great to comment on a post and not get an error!! Truly fantastic.)
Not an electrical issue?
In the summer of 1975 I had a summer job that involved quite a few miles behind the wheel, riding shotgun, or in the bed of that vintage F100. Six cylinder and three on the tree, no power steering … one of the most enjoyable vehicles I’ve driven, though mostly for where, with whom, and why I was driving it, and not the actual driving experience.
Now that I’ve lived here over 11 years, carspotting in Vegas has gone downhill. I don’t even see vehicles like this anymore; they just are so common that I’ve stopped noticing. That’s what makes me such a lousy correspondent here at CC.
Evan, I’d say to keep shooting… and posting. Like you, though, if I would see vehicles like this truck around all the time, I might also become somewhat desensitized. 🙂
Come up to my neighborhood during the week and you’ll see a couple of Ford bumpsides pulling landscaper trailers. The School District still has a couple of dentsides (’73-’79) in service. These are the pickups that gave Ford their current rep as the full-size pickup to beat.
It is always nice to see an old truck still at work, especially one that appears to be in such good condition; no overt rust in the common areas, and no sign of collapsing cab mounts.
Those drawers on the side are an interesting touch, potentially a good use of otherwise wasted space, but also with great potential for filling up with rusty sludge-water.
I have a 1971 F100 longbed, showing a bit more wear than the subject of this article, which before my tenure was fitted with ’70 grille inserts. I agree with MaxKlinger that these make for the most attractive front ends on the 67-72 Fords.
I had a 72 ford pickup and an 82 ford pickup short wheel base and it got destroyed by my own son that passed way
” There was something so satisfying about doing something with my hands (besides typing), and seeing with my own eyes the finished result of something I had diligently worked on. ” ~ _THIS_ why I so love being a Journeyman Mechanic .
The satisfaction of a job done well is incomparable .
I still find more than a few rust & collision free oldies (trucks and cars) in Las Vegas junkyards every time I go .
I forget what brand of imported pickups tried a rear underbed storage box, I can only imagine it failed miserably in any truck actually used for _work_ .
I’m a Bow Tie Guy ’till I die but these old Fords were very stout, even the “Twin I-Beam” front ends worked very well and they tended to have less rattles than GM trucks .
My Gardener has a similar F240 long bed sans the tool box, he re sprayed it green in his driveway a few years back, it works like a rented mule 5 days the week .
Pretty much rust is the primary killers of older work trucks anywhere but the Western states .
I was looking at so many in the San Joaquin (! SP !) valley these last three days .
Some of our foster boys parents de camped to Las Vegas and live in hard scrabble apartments East of town, some were really nice when built in the 1960’s, almost all are places no one wants to be after dark now .
I occasionally take one of them to visit for a weekend, drop them off and head out into the Desert and surrounding junkyards looking for treasure .
My Sweet has a nice time share there and loves to gamble, for some reason she never loses although she doesn’t win much $ .
That every place outside of the major casinos and motels is filthy beyond belief staggers me ~ how hard can it be to clean the concrete so it’s not like _Velcro_ from spilled drinks, puke and God alone knows what all else .
Ew .
As far as children, you know by age 12 or so how they’re going to treat vehicles .
I never, _EVER_ allow my one man wrecking crew son to use anything of mine because he deliberately destroys everything he touches his own things included .
-Nate