A Truck Called Millie Van Winkle

When I was 9, 10 or maybe 11, I would stand proud on the back of a truck called Millie Van Winkle.

Standing, four cousins abreast, tiny hands, white knuckled, gripping the headache rack of that old 1960 or 61 Ford F-350 Flatbed with my uncle at the wheel, my dad beside him. We'd go careening through the neighborhood, peering over the cab, wind in our hair, bugs in our teeth screaming "Faster! Faster!!" 

Dad bought the truck from his boss Dick Snelling (Richard A. Snelling) after Dick purchased Miller & Van Winkle. It was an old Miller & Van Winkle truck Dick was offloading, a distressed asset. Dad gifted it to his brothers, a couple of builders, Uncle Moose and Uncle Bill, whereupon they christened it "Millie Van Winkle."

Dick Snelling took struggling businesses and returned them to profitability, becoming a millionaire in the process. He eventually became governor of Vermont.

When dad worked for him, Dick had a little single engine plane that he would fly up to Burlington Vermont, back and forth, landing on a grass strip in Greene, NY. After a little engine trouble flying over the Great Lakes, Dick replaced it with a nice little twin-engine. 

I believe Millie Van Winkle is the same truck I, years later, threw square hay bales up on in the hayfield we cousins terrorized with our motorcycles. 

Starting out on a Honda 50, I grew into a Suzuki 75, then a Honda Rebel 450 street bike in the early 90's.

My motorcycle days are over, Millie Van Winkle has long since been retired, standing on the back of a moving truck has been outlawed, but dad and I? We still enjoy rotating in an old truck.