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Manfred was a 1955 Chevy
pickup. In 1972, I bought a pair of junked trucks for $75 and put
them together to make one running truck. I repainted and decorated a
few years later. That's me in the picture at almost 21 years of age,
just before driving from Southern California to Washington in August
of 1974. Notice the orange "driving gloves." I guess I was a bit of
a weirdo from the very beginning.
I changed the wording on the bumper a
couple of times. Another slogan on my bumper was, "Everything you
know is wrong." There were other writings on the truck at various
times. For about a year it said, "Honk if you are Jesus." on one of
the front fenders.
On the driver's side rear fender is a
bunch of colorful squiggles. In the midst of those squiggles was a
dot. The dot had an arrow pointing to it and the designation,
'Reference Point." I figured we all need a point of reference
sometimes so this was it. The armadillo/tank like thing on the
driver's door is from an Emerson, Lake and Palmer album called
Tarkus.
For part of it's life with me,
Manfred had a manikin hand as a hood ornament. I can't find any
photos of the manikin hand on the hood. I actually had a succession
of several hands because people kept stealing them or breaking off
the fingers. The ceiling in the cab was painted with fluorescent
paint to look like space, and there were other decorations painted
on the dashboard.
I sold the truck in 1981 or 1982 and
did not decorate another vehicle until I met Juanita in 1995. She
had a Toyota Corolla that was rusting out. We turned it into
Ricky The Fish
in 1996 or maybe 1997.
I sometimes have dreams that I still
own Manfred. |
