Aug 7, 2017
STAFFORD — For one New York group, fixing up cars isn’t interesting — it’s all about the trucks.
The Empire State Antique Truck Association held its 31st annual Truck, Tractor and Construction Equipment Show this weekend, bringing in truck enthusiasts from all over Western New York.
Everyone knows about car shows, but at this event, if it doesn’t have a bed, it’s not allowed.
The show allows attendees to go back in time a little to see how trucks have evolved over the years. From the Model A to old Chevrolets or Ford F-150s, drugs from all decades are present.
“This has grown a little bit every year,” said George Pursel, who helps organize the event every year. “We’ve gone from probably 55 members and now we’ve got about 150 members.”
Pursel said he’s had trucks his whole life and one of the ones on display was his grandfather’s.
The Western New York chapter of the ESATA goes as far south as Jamestown and as far east as Penn Yan, so people from all over the area were in attendance.
The event itself is more than just trucks on display, though. There are events for kids, a tractor pull, other kinds of farming equipment to look at and a slow race, which is pretty much what it sounds like — a race to see who can drive the slowest.
Pursel said some of the trucks are really well built to purposefully drive slow.
As for why they focus on trucks when cars seem to grab people’s attention, Pursel said it’s about the history.
“It’s a fond history to people who like them,” Pursel said, adding that muscle cars don’t have “a real history” to them.
“These all had a purpose,” he said.
