Bulldog Rescue...

[Terry T]

This came up on my Facebook memories from this day last year.  It's a long post but it's what many of us on this forum & the old ATHS (now JOT) forum used to do & many of us are still trying to do.  It still doesn't seem possible that Mike has left us. The stories that he was posting on FB about trucks late at night, when he wasn't able to sleep, were awesome stories & his memory of each truck was incredible.

 

Saturday Mala Sue & I went over to Grovertown, IN to a Dog Rescue that she is involved with. For me, being an old truck driver, Grovertown is a place that I'm familiar with because back in the day it had a truck stop or two that everyone was familiar with because going west it was one of the last spots to hit before Chicago and going east, of course, it was one of the 1st spots to hit after leaving Chicago. We get to the rescue and we're hanging out, doing dog things, talking to the couple who run the rescue, I have some things in common with them, have some mutual acquaintances and just having a nice time with dogs & puppies. While sitting with them my buddy, Mike Harbison Sr., sends me a message asking if I'm familiar with a certain antique Mack in Mishawaka, IN. I'm not but we talk about it for a bit via text. During this time several of the dogs come into the part of the house that we're in and I make some new friends. Although I don't have any dogs, just my cat, Naomi, I do adore dogs and they tend to adore me too. A couple of the dogs are typically very reluctant to warm up to people but they take to me. It's something that has happened most of my life. It kinda seems like dogs like me more than humans! So anyways as all of this is going on I realize that for the past 20ish years I have kind of been involved in a sort of "rescue" myself. Mostly a Bulldog rescue but not of the canine type more of the Mack type. Mike Harbison Sr. & I began our friendship about 20 years ago and he once asked me if I could go to Goshen, IN and pick up a Mack he had bought and store it for a bit until he could arrange to get it to his place. I did and about 3 years later it left my place. I also bought a Mack from people I know & sold it to Mike a day later & delivered it to him a few weeks later and later on he bought another old Mack that I had acquired. Because of a couple of old antique truck forums that I got involved in back in about 2001ish I am involved in a sort of antique truck rescue. It was much more active during the 2000-2010 time frame than it is now but there are still a few of us who are trying to save history from the scrap metal business and preserve a little of what helped build our country.

[mowerman]

Excellent story thanks for sharing. Interesting it said cat by the way I love the name totally southern I grew up with cats and I really never owned a dog until 2001. They were the best… that C model seems to be in pretty good shape Bob 

[Terry T]

2 hours ago, mowerman said:

Excellent story thanks for sharing. Interesting it said cat by the way I love the name totally southern I grew up with cats and I really never owned a dog until 2001. They were the best… that C model seems to be in pretty good shape Bob 

The story behind her name is kinda odd.  I didn't intend to have another pet but a friend asked me to foster her for a week.... That week lasted about 4 months & during that time I kept telling people she's "not my cat". Well a girlfriend came along and about the same time I learned that the cat's previous human had found a home for her but, in my opinion, it wasn't a suitable home so she became my cat. The girlfriend set out to find a name for the cat and Naomi is about as close to "not my cat" as she anyone could come so... Naomi is my cat.

 

The C Model is a bit more rough than it appears.  It has donated some parts. If I remember right a fender to a B67 (if that's possible) and something to another C.

I'll look at Mike's FB page and if I can find the stories he was posting I'll ask Mikey if it's okay for me to share them here.