GM FYI Blog

Bet you never thought of a Chevy Truck as a family heirloom — but turns out that’s what it is for a lot of families. As part of our Search for the Most Dependable, Longest Lasting Silverado Trucks, we’re collecting stories. Here’s a piece of family lore from Scott Burnett in Kansas City, Missouri.

My home town is Arlington, Kansas. I grew up five miles west of Arlington, on a cattle and wheat farm. When I was a kid, we had a 1947 Chevy 3/4-ton, which I still have.

When we cut wheat in June of each year, we filled the back of this truck (we put sideboards on it) and hauled the wheat five miles east to the Arlington Cooperative Exchange. At the grain elevator, a hoist pulled up the front of the truck and gravity pulled the wheat out the back. I remember putting some 80 bushels of wheat in that truck, about 4,800 lbs.

We also used the truck to haul around a 300-gallon gas tank during wheat planting each fall.

I was born in 1951 and drove the truck to high school and community college. In 1970, I sanded and taped the truck, and a farmer friend spray-painted it the lovely color that you see in the pictures. My mom calls it the Purple Plum – but I hate that name.

In 1993 I had it loaded on a flat bed and delivered to my home here in Kansas City, Missouri. I have driven it in parades for candidates and for my own candidacy since that time. I’ve joined the Chevy Truck 200K club – actually, the odometer’s been broken forever, so I don’t even know how many miles are on it.

My family and friends in Arlington can’t remember the truck’s history — but Carolyn’s Essenhaus has been buzzing about it the last few days. My grandfather, Jim Burnett, purchased it in December 1950 and it was used on the farm until 1993. We are not sure of the original owner. The title on the truck is dated 1947, but it takes parts from 1946 – I think that from 1941 to the middle of 1947, all these 3/4-ton (and 1/2-ton) trucks were the same. In the middle of 1947 they changed the body style.

I do see a lot of old Chevy trucks out there, but not too many are in as good condition as our old truck.