Pumpkin plows ahead
By Rae KrugerArticle Photos
MARSHALL - She's got some years on her, but she moves snow like a truck half her age.
"She's just a good old girl," Lyndon Fox said of the 1970 International Load Star truck with the snowplow he uses to clear snow at Marshall Northwest Pipefittings. "She runs good."
They call her Pumpkin. "She's pumpkin orange," Fox said.
Larry Gregg, a mechanic at Olson and Johnson Trucks in Marshall, can also vouch for the truck.
"She's a tough old girl. I think she could run through a building," Gregg said.
Gregg replaced the radiator recently. "She's a pretty heavy-duty old girl," he said.
"They're lucky the service manager has been here (for years) and I've been here since that era," Gregg said. "We pretty much understand (the truck)."
Gregg doesn't see much of her, although she gets regular oil changes.
Pumpkin is a simple truck, Gregg said. She's got a 392 engine with a five-speed and single axle, he said.
"It was a lot simpler then," Gregg said. "Just gas and spark plug and go.
"You don't have to think about warming 'em up..."
Pumpkin wears the color of state, county and city vehicles. It's the color she likely wore while working for the Minnesota Department of Transportation or a county highway department, Gregg said.
Pumpkin may have then been sold and bought by a different county or smaller city.
An Echo, Ghent or Milroy-sized city had similar trucks, Gregg said.
"That's got a big plow on the front," Gregg said with a laugh. "That's a plow used for highways, county roads and city blocks."
Fox was plowing a big outdoor lot Friday morning.
Such trucks can be found at gravel pits being used by smaller contractors, or on farms and ranches, Gregg said.
"If you go out to South Dakota, you will see a lot of them," Gregg said. "Trucks can last a long time."
A classified ad posted on at least two Internet sites showed a 1970 International Load Star with 38,000 miles for sale in New Mexico for about $8,000. The ad said that truck had 37,000 miles.
Northwest Pipefittings has had the truck for at least three years, Fox said. That's when he started driving it.
"I like to run it," Fox said. "I like plowing snow. It's better than shoveling. It's warm in there."
Gregg was surprised to hear the cab was warm.
"The doors probably rattle, they were never that tight," he said.
Fox and others have spent a lot of time in Pumpkin's driver's seat. The seat covering is so worn the padding is nearly gone and the backing of the seat shows through.
When Pumpkin isn't plowing snow, the truck is used to haul garbage to the landfill, Fox said.
It's tough to tell how many miles Pumpkin has worked.
"The odometer quit working at 77,000 miles," Fox said.
