The "Blue Truck"

WGSF Television acquired a Ford Route Van that became a mainstay of transportation for several years, both during the latter years of WGSF and for several years after the move to the Newark High School campus.

For discussion starters:

The truck had a manual shift transmission, which presented a challenge to some of the younger WGSF staffers. I remember waiting through several traffic light changes while observing a neophyte driver struggle to master the clutch and gas feed, the driver all the while becoming more frustrated. The truck just 'died' on each attempt, but the lesson was eventually successful.

Another youthful driver had a chilling experience while traversing the first big curve on the down-hill run from the station on Horn's Hill. The steering locked up, and the truck ended up between two trees, headed back up the hill the hard way. Took two wreckers to extricate 'Ole Blue from that precarious position. Did that deter the driver from ever driving again - truck or auto?  No way! After necessary repairs to the steering, she was back at it again. I knew that person was headed for a successful career, and it was so.

Another incident at the junction of 21st Street and and Moul St. tested the mettle of two other voyagers in the Blue truck. Smoke began pouring out from under the dash.

The truck had a few years on it, and mucho milage, when we got it. The metal was no longer pristine, yea, there were a few openings in places that Ford had not provided in the original design. A few strategically placed bricks covered the most problematic holes. While tooling out Route 16 past Cherry Valley intersection one rainy day, I looked back to see a 'rooster tail' of water kicking up from the tires. INSIDE the van! Some enterprising and clean freak do-gooder had cleaned out the truck for my trip, including the essential bricks covering the holes in the floor.

It served to transport all of the equipment from the station to the high school campus after WGSF closed. It was still used as the Mini-mote for some time, and other innumerable transportation tasks, until finally pulled from service in the late 70's.