Second tale of the Green Goose

[Hard Luck]

Green Goose Deuce

How did this one start? I would have to go back more than two decades, when the US Army moved my family to Washington State. We needed a second car so my Dad could get to the base on time. With the cash we had available my father came home with a seafoam green ’69 Chevy pickup. I looked at the car in our carport and named it the “Green Goose.” I don’t know, I was young.

We would spend Saturday afternoons driving the Goose around collecting cans and bottles to turn in for the refund money. Being over six feet tall, Dad would lift me into dumpster after dumpster and it was my mission to find the treasure in the trash! That was some of the best times of my young life, Saturdays with Dad.

Those memories drew me towards this truck. The sentimentality kicked in and I went for this ’69 instead of something that was in better shape or more complete. That and the fact that the couple was so incredibly nice and made me feel like I was really helping them out by taking it off of their hands before they had to leave for Eastern Washington in a week.

This Goose came up from Arizona two years prior where the couple that sold it to me bought her from the original owner. Being from AZ the truck came with naturally bleached highlights, every piece of rubber pre-toasted, and pound of fine sand ready to hold gallons of that Washington's famous liquid sunshine.

After it was transported to Renton, WA the new owners put on a brand new carb, a loud shorty exhaust, and completed a brake job before putting a torch to the four coil springs, heating them until they collapsed. The second owner, proud of the new marker lights he installed, decided to drive the truck to work for the first time where he promptly backed the forklift into the front fender. In that condition, and riding on three bumpstops, they managed to take it out to a few shows before sending it out to pasture in the front yard for the next year and a half.

I found the heavy half through local advertisement and after a good look over and a night to think about it, a deal was struck. The next day I watched in my rearview mirror as the now previous owner drove his big green Chev for the last time.