Ebner_Trucks_ClassicCarMagazine_Article

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THE DEFINITIVE ALL-AMERICAN COLLECTOR-CAR MAGAZINE
JULY
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1964 CHEVY II GETS A
FACTORY-CORRECT
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Hello Muddoh, Hello Fodduh
Summ
BY
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r hq inhs inv olv ing Ar rry - surplus h ar dw ar e
JIM DONNELLY
f you were
lucky-or hideously unlucky,
depending on how well you enjoyed the
experience- moybe your porents sent
you to comp in the summertime,You know, songs oround the fire, roosting morshmollows,
diving into o loke somewhere, sleeping in o bunkroom, oll the ftin stuff thotAllon Shermon
sotirized in his Emmy-winning novelty song referenced in our heodline. Comp olso meons
field trips, to the mountoins or o historicol site, perhops.Todoy, kids of comp go on those trips
in school buses. But of o couple of Connecticut comps, beginning in the lote
.I940s,
the
comp kids troveled in sort-of Army trucks,
Let's start with the camps. The first location is known as Camp
Awosting, which is on Bantam Lake outside Morris, Connecticu!
in the northwestern part of the state, a little south of Litchfield.
Right nearby is a similar site for girls, Camp Chinqueka. Founded
by Dr. WalterTruslow in 1900, Camp Awosting is the oldest private
boys' camp in the United States, as its website proclaims. lt takes
its name from a lake in adjoining NewYork where the camp was
originally located. ln 1905, new owners instituted what's called a
"tribal system," based on one founded at the prestigious St. Paul's
School in Concord, New Hampshire. Since 1948, the camp has
been under the ownership of the Ebner family, whose patriarch,
Oscar Ebner Sr., had worked as an Awosting counselor since the
Iate 1930s.
Oscar Sr. is the focal personality in this little saga. He was
a hardcore Chrysler guy, and one of his first acts was to buy a
couple of vehicles for the campers. One was a huge 1948 De Soto
Suburban sedan, with three rows of seats, which was used to ferry
attendees in from as far as NewYork City, in some cases. Oscar
also went out and bought himself a Dodge truck, a two-ton chassis
and cab combination. There was no rear bodywork, at least not at
first. But Oscar was a thrifty guy, and one time, made it over to the
docks in Newark, New Jersey, to remedy that.
90
HEMMINGS CLASSIC CAR JULY
2Ol4 a Hemmings.com
We learned what happened next from his son, Oscar Jr., who
now runs the camps and goes by the nickname of Buzz. As Buzz
told iq his dad deliberately ordered a short-wheelbase chassis
under the Dodge so that a deuce-and-a-half body would drop right
into place. What's that mean? Simple: lt's a reference to the Army's
built-by-the-millions, or so you might lhink,21/z-ton cargo truck
used during and after World War Il. Aside from the original Jeep,
these rigs are the U.S. military's most iconic vehicles. The re-mechanization of the Army that commenced in the I930s saw a variety
of manufacturers submit truck designs to the Quartermaster Corps,
which had its construction and proving grounds at Fort Holabird,
Maryland, where the earliest original rigs were built by the corps
using Hercules gasoline engines.
These trucks were called the Standard Flee! and later evolutions were built by Marmon-Herringon and CMC, both with sixwheel drive. Lots of manufacturers made trucks for the Army during
the war, from Chevrolet to Mack and Studebaker, but it was CMC's
version, the first of which appeared in 1939, that gained enduring
fame. More than 562,000 examples of the CMC CCKW, as the
Army called it, were built. That meant a lot of surplus parts were lying around, including the familiar 21/z-ton cargo and troop body. At
Newark, so the story goes, Oscar Sr. found a stash of excess cargo
"I don't have to wonder when I order
from Le&aron Bonaev"
?
:,
Speedometers,
Tachometers
bodies, with LE\D Li:-<i ;-:-:r.c -io the
sheetmetal for the
L.S.
war materiel o\ er-:: t:
a, :es.
Oscar Sr. bolgr: -=,:'= :,t:rem and
:-:.-:- :.: --:
:+-'r:i
applied gray
pa;n::.:-:^=
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Contact us today for a lree informa-
tion package on your model and
Cables, Gas Sendins Units
a
lree copy of our latest parts catalog.
10123 Bergin Road, Howett Mt 48843
fiufi0,88e fiIsr,nl
81 O-63 2-O4OO
fax, 810-602-688I
wril.Bob$$0ccdomeler.com
-.cec olire
drab. One bodr c',:,::=: ^::: , a:op ihe
new Dodge chassrs. -e1 . aj :op \,, ent
across the borr s. . ^
:^€ .a,,., s of the
day, kids coulC c'.... c , ^:. :.e side-iacing
troop benches as ---e l,r::e :rundled them
on field trips go r- :: : ::ar:: a: Cape Cod
and Vermont. B;zz ,., as ore of the camp
counselors in t:e la:r.
'All that \\as i1e.e ior safeh,u,as the
military safeh s:';c across ihe back of the
truck to hold the ia..lr-oop person in place
on the bench." Buzz recalleC. "ln the case
of the camp transpo( it ,,r as tne hr o senior
staff persons that got ihai :eat, ne\er a
camper. But children irom age =ir or seven
on up to 16 were transported back and
forth to campsites in this mode of transport
for almost 25 years. As a child riding in one
of these vehicles, it was quite a thrill. Here
you were, Iike riding in a conr,ertible, rvith
the wind blowing through t,our hair and
looking out over all the scenen passing
by and being able to see over most other
vehicles as well."
The Army bodies later went from the
Dodge onto several I963 Chevrolet C60
chassis/cab units, all powered by the 230cu.in. straight-six. One of those trucks is
long retired, but still sits around Awosting,
and Buzz said the Ebner family hopes to do
a full restoration on it before very long.
IA
Over 50 yeils 01 lst quality upholst€ry dG. tops ancl
accossories. Our product line now includes ovor 800
models oi Ford, Morcury, Ch6wolot, Buick and other
GM vehicles sponing the years lrom I 91 61 962.
All gauge
instrwnentation
repaired E restored
800.592.9673 .
LBBcBtomer t{buqne
I-llAll' B0[s$peed0mctc]@a0l.com
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W. enjoy pubtishing period photos of
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tirl
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