The Valley River Truck Jam advertisements promised a memorable show and on Saturday, August 21, they delivered.
Alexis and Charles Smith of the Farmhouse Diner fame in Marble, North Carolina hosted their third annual Truck Jam at the Western Carolina Regional Airport under sunny blue skies and impressive outdoor speakers pounding out country tunes. Over 160 modified cars, jeeps and bikers registered for the event which offered a variety of choices and styles for the local spectators.
Alexis said, “We started this Truck Jam as a hobby.” She and her husband have a passion for trucks and have worked with the Cherokee Coal Rollers for years. She said they “travel all over the United States attending Truck Jams,” and wanted to hold one closer to home. She proudly called her jam a “blue collar truck event” because it doesn’t attract any national sponsors. Their Truck Jam is funded entirely through local sponsorship and the $45 buy in for the registrants.
But the hundreds of folks who attended the show didn’t seem to notice the missing fancy sponsors. This year’s local sponsors totaled over twenty as a testimony to the community’s excitement for the Show and Shine. Young and old paraded along the parked trucks, jeeps and motorcycles sometimes climbing inside to get a better view.
The Brooks family were on their way to Walmart when six-year-old Lyle Brooks caught sight of the big trucks on the airport parking lot. His dad required very little convincing to detour and they happily spent their day at the Truck Jam instead. Lyle fell in love with bright green 1962 Ford EconoLine Pick-up owned by Terry Sams. Sams explained that his eye catcher is “not a hot rod.” He said, “It only has 75 horsepower, but I’ve had the truck for four years and love it.” He said, “It makes people smile.”
Sams’ truck stationed itself next to a giant white Dodge pickup which boasted 700 Horsepower. Mike Martin has owned the truck for eight years and proudly named it “Frankentruck,” as a nod to how it was created. The truck was the result of two separate trucks, a powerful saw, and a full year of garage surgery.
Martins said, “This is a rescue truck. I first saw it lying in a valley after it rolled down a mountainside. I offered to buy it on the spot, but the owner was attached.” A full year later the owner called Martin. “He wanted to buy race car parts and was willing to sell.” Martin said his truck is unique in that he put a standard cab on an extended bed. “Dodge doesn’t make that kind of truck.”
20-year-old Jacob Buchanan worked all year building swimming pools to earn enough money to buy his shiny black 2818 Ram with a Cummins engine. His truck stood out among the others due to a very unusual attachment he built in the bed of his truck. Attached to what looked like black PVC piping, Buchanan fastened four giant boat speakers that can blast music across the entire county.
When asked what type of music he entertains his neighbor with, Buchanan proudly said, “Rap music. Exclusively.,” adding that his favorite rapper is Da Baby. Buchanan is not sentimental about his truck. “I’ll probably sell it within the year. I get bored.”
Sitting next to Buchanan’s giant boom box, sat 21 year-old Jacob Waldroup’s 1996 F1 50 XLT. Waldroup had something to prove at the Jam. His twin brother, Jesse won “Best Cummins Engine” last year and Waldroup hoped to hold the trophy for himself this year. When asked why his brother won, Jacob laughed, “I guess because his engine was so loud.” He modified his truck to have an 11-inch lift and “a square body.” He said, “That’s unusual because they don’t make square bodies anymore. They’re not aerodynamic.” Unlike his neighbor Buchanan, Waldroup intends to keep his truck saying, “I’ll drive it until the wheels fall off.”
Several food trucks catered the event and there were games and cornhole for the kids. With people clumped together eating food, others dancing to the music, or jumping from truck beds, the Jam felt more like a neighborhood party than the highly organized event that it was. And that is just how the Smiths intended it to be.