Building a Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

Package stealing?! This person is worse than the insurance jerks. There is a way to stop this. Put some tempting looking boxes on your porch, find a good hiding place, and pump up your pellet gun. Sit, wait, then light em up! I did something similar when the window units kept disappearing from my windows! I drove down the street like I was going to work, then walked back. Did i mention i had “quarter boy” with me? He was my 120lbs. Rottweiler (miss you boy!). Just a big baby but when your a rotten theif caught in the act by a pissed off white boy and his giant dog you don’t really stick around to pet the animals. that guy heard me first, then saw quarter and let out this hilarious blood curdling scream, like his voice was horse and cracking trying to make some kind of noise. He dropped the a/c and took off toward the train tracks with quarter on his heels. I just walked toward the screaming and crying coming from the bushes to find quarter standing over this guy licking his face rather aggressively. Then! Get this, the guy says he’s gonna sue me because the dog bit him. I told him he just busted my window unit and to empty his pockets before i hit him in the mouth and turned the vicious dog loose again. He gave me all of his $8 and got the heck outta dodge. Good times in east Nashville. I know this is off topic but i figures we could all use a little comic relief. Here’s some paintings I had commissioned. (Mom did them for me) Quarter and whitey. Rottweiler and pit-bull. Gooooood dogs!

 

The strange part for us, we lived 23 years along a half mile dead end dirt road in the boonies with nothing but an 80 acre pine forest across the road. We had roughly the middle five acres of eight five acre lots, all on the north side of the road. To get to our road you had to drive 1/4 mile along a large game preserve from another paved road. No homes nearby.
I was receiving several boxes of car parts most weeks for years. We only used our back door. The garage was semi attached with a 20X20 cement apron at the garage. The front garage door was at least 350' from the street. Nothing was ever missing, even when we were gone for days.
I had lots of friends living in or near town. All complained about packages occasionally not being delivered, lawn mowers, tools, etc. missing if left out.

We've moved back to midwest onto a very short lane no wider than a bike path. Our lot and most are 1/2 acre. We haven't gotten many packages. But everything we have rceived has been left near the side door very visible to the lane. Other neighbors have been getting white or brown truck deliveries. As far as I know nothing has vanished.
Sometimes living in the city, a HOA, or large neighborhood is not the best place to trust others passing by.

Your story about insurance companies is sad but true. Our daughter is an insurance adjuster for a large company. She grew up around antique and custom cars. She still doesn't know the difference between a '57 Corvette and a Ford Flex.
So far I've been very lucky. We spent years in Florida where rumors are 1 in 4 drivers has no license or insurance. Many can't speak English or know what road signs mean. Others so poor they can't afford license or insurance. Beer and drugs are expensive!
If you've heard stories about Florida drivers, they are true. It's not much better anyplace else.
Good luck.

 

So why'd you name your dog "Quarter?" "Whitey" is, of course, fairly obvious.

 

Ehhhh..ok you asked for it..i was young and up to no good. Some low life owed me money. And not for 25¢. It was for a quarter oz. (we won’t get specific) turns out not only did he not have my money, but nothing in his apt. Of Equal value except this poor malnourished rotty pup. I convinced him it was in his and the dogs best interest to give me custody. I figured I’d find a good buyer for the dog and recuperate some of my losses. Quart-Quart lived with me happy, fat, and sassy for the next 16 years. Old for a dog his size. Whitey i named for the white spot on his chest and his little white toes. Also because i was the only white guy in the neighborhood and right on a busy corner. I like to think the neighbors got a kick out of the crazy cracker out on the porch hollering at “WHITEY!!!”

 

Well, good on you for accepting the pup as a pup and not an object to sell off.

 

I like to think the neighbors got a kick out of the crazy cracker out on the porch hollering at “WHITEY!!!”

I loved your doggy discriptions and their names. A quarter oz. T-bone or burger seems rather small!

A good friend who was a mechanic at one of the factories I drove a semi rig to went by Whitey. A crazy little ornery guy! Even when young he had white hair.

 

I'll just guess it was like this character who was inches from a Yeti:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=163

 

Had a girlfriend back then who’s mom raised horses. She loved him and would laugh! “Quarter boy?!?! He’s a quarter horse!!!”

 

So, I have some good news for a change. It seems like the last few months of updates have been a bad news streak and now I have something positive to report. I have sent numerous request for information to anyone connected to the original movie for months. I have not had any replies until tonight. I was contacted by Violet Ramis Stiel, the daughter of Harold Ramis. If you don't know who he is, take both your hands and grasp your throat. Now squeeze.

What most of you probably don't know is Violet played one of cousin Eddies kids (Daisy Mable) so that movie is meaningful to her. Harold Ramis and Chevy Chase designed the Truckster and I'm hoping some stuff still exist pertaining to its construction. She is not aware of any blueprints or anything like that, but anything she comes across she will send my way!!

 

Man that is good news!!! Finally! I’m still trying to focus and catch my breath after doing the neck squeeze thing... why did I do that? I still don’t know who that is “I’m going steady And we French kiss...daddy says I’m the best at it.”(was that daisy?)

 

This time please please PLEEASE insist on a signature for the package!

Director for Groundhog Day? Actor who played Egon Spengler? C'mon, Grizz.

 

The 'kissing' cousin was Jane Krakowski; Daisy Mabel didn't have any speaking lines, so she was uncredited. But now to think about how uproariously wretched the Family Truckster looked, it makes total sense Ramis and Chase designed it....<--Chase Ramis-->

 

Well that is some good news. I hope you are able to find a treasure trove of information.
This may be a wild idea, but have you considered reaching out to Chevy Chase? I know it would be a longshot, but you never know.

 

Daisy Mable was the one Clark bent down and said "How are you little one?" And Eddie replied "She was born with out a tongue Clark. But don't you worry about her, she whistles like a bird and eats like a horse." I attached a picture.

There is no guarantee she will find anything but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

As for Chevy Chase, he is notoriously tough to get ahold of. You can send stuff to his fan mail and a typical response takes 3 months minimum. The bigger the celebrity the less likely they are going to reply. They get hounded by fans.

Violet is known throughout the Ghostbuster community and is very approachable with her father's fans. I'm not suprized she replied. I think she was more suprized someone wants to build a Truckster. She always being asked about the GB stuff since he is most famously known as Egon but he had a hand in just about every movie from the 80's and 90's that doesn't suck. Stripes, Ghostbusters, Groundhog day, Caddyshack, Animal House, Bedazzled, Back to School, Meatballs. The list goes on.

His role in Vacation was Director, voice of Mary Moose. At the end of the movie a cop says "Should we take them downtown and book them?" That's when Roy Wally gives them a reprieve. That cop was his voice. With him directing he sets the whole tone of the movie. He had a hand in everything. I don't think the movie would have been good if anyone else was in the directors chair. He did regret shooting the scene in the Ghetto where the hubcaps are stolen for not being PC. I still laugh at it, it was funny. I wonder if there was a "cousin Jack" in the Torino with no wheels on it?

As for the Truckster being wretched, that's subjective. I like it. I'm that 1% that likes cars no one else wants. Call it bad taste but I have Gremlins, Pacers and other oddballs. I like Chevettes and Pintos and would love a 50 Studebaker, 58 Edsel wagon or a 57 Mercury Wagon. Yes green with wood siding. A puke olive green metalic car with green interior is my thing! The more others gag the more I want it. Lol

Another interesting thing about Harold Ramis is also known as the only director that Chevy Chase threw a suitcase at. When filming the Truckster backing out of the garage and ripping off the luggage scene it was over 90*. They kept reshooting the scene and Chevy lost his temper and threw a suitcase at Harold. To bad it doesn't exist on film somewhere.

I've seen this move way to many times.

 

Oh, when I said 'wretched,' I did say it with tongue-in-cheek. That design was just so over-the-top humorous, like when Eddie was emptying the greywater tank in Christmas Vacation, and announces to Clark that the "S#!tter's full." Just such a WTF scene, you cannot help but laugh.