“I was 12 years old when my papa sold his truck,” said Shelby Bryson. “I was there the day he sold it. And I don’t know why he did — when it left the driveway, he said out loud, ‘I wish I didn’t sell that,’ and in my little mind I was like, ‘I’m gonna get that truck back for my papa one day.’”
And that’s what Bryson hopes to do now, but with the help of the public.
The truck that came to mean so much to Bryson and her family was a cream and beige 1979 Ford F-250 Ranger flatbed that Bryson said was one of the first work trucks her grandfather, whom she lovingly refers to as papa, ever owned.
“This was one of — if not the very first — truck of the business when my dad was 17,” said Bryson. “My grandfather started Kelly’s RV and named it after dad, so this is also very sentimental to my dad.”
She went on to describe the many trips she, along with her dad and grandpa, had made in the old truck.
“You know, as a boy, he rode in this truck going up north to pick up campers to bring back home to sell on our lot — coon hunting, I mean this was the truck of his childhood,” Bryson said.
Bryson said that she has left no stone unturned, so to speak, in her search for the Ranger, but has recently come to a dead end.
“I’ve been at it for over a year now trying to just search and chase down anything I could find out about it. I didn’t have the VIN at first, but I found that through some paperwork where it got sold at auction. I know the last place it was,within the last three to four years was in Poplar Bluff,” said Bryson.
Her dedication to the search brought the family to Poplar Bluff from Paragould, Arkansas.
“Daddy and me and my boyfriend made a trip to Poplar Bluff to just kind of talk to people in person, like the last couple of contacts we had in Poplar Bluff who had any knowledge about it,” said Bryson.
They have, according to Bryson, shared photos and information on social media platforms, made countless phone calls and hit the pavement in their quest to locate the Ranger to no avail.
The age of the truck makes the task a bit more daunting, according to Bryson, who said she had struggled to get information even with the VIN.
Bryson said she spoke with the last gentleman to own the truck and he provided her contact information for the party he sold the truck to, but that is where the trail ends. The next person she talked to had no additional information, according to Bryson.
The search for her papa’s truck and the memories it holds will continue, she said. She asks anyone with any information or knowledge of the Ranger to contact her at 870-565-2225.