A Ride in a Red Baby

It was the show in Portland, Indiana where I saw Wendell Kelch’s International Harvester truck, the Red Baby. This truck was made by International Harvester and before I had seen the toy version, but never the real thing.  Wendell shared his beautiful truck that he brought to a show for the first time in Portland. I interviewed him about his wonderful truck for a story for Red Power and Farm World.  Best of all though I got to go for a ride in this magic machine.

ride!

I felt like Princess Diana in a parade!  It was awesome.  I told Wendell he made my day!

It wasn’t that long ago that Wendell Kelch first learned about this truck.  After he found out about the Red Baby truck, he immediately wanted one.  He learned about it when someone left him a note at the 2010 Red Power Round Up.  “This was the first time I had heard of the Red Baby.  It is a service truck, why don’t I have one?  I fell in love.  I called my friend Dan in Kansas, and he told me about Billy Overturf who had a Red Baby. Dan said, “I’ll see if I can find it. He found it and was successful getting it bought.”

 Wendell had his beloved 1924 Red Baby for seven years before he took the time to restore it.  “Our woodworking vendor is 87 years-old,” Wendell said.  “I told him we better get at it.  We spent the winter making wood.  It was May before it was done.  It took six gallons of PPG Concept paint.  The writing is silk screened on.

The beautiful Red Baby was a showstopper and a heart stopper.  It kept a bit of mine after my amazing ride.