Judges call truck ugly, man calls it beautiful
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on October 11, 2009 2:00 AM
Marvin L. Coley's truck gets him from Point A to Point B -- making it beautiful to him -- but his wife Annie wouldn't be caught dead in it.
"My wife says it's ugly," Coley said of his 1968 Chevrolet C10.
Turns out Annie's not the only one who thinks it's ugly: Coley was the victor in the Wayne County Regional Agricultural Fair's annual Ugly Truck Contest.
Second place went to Rusty Smith, while third place "honors" were awarded to the rust heap of James Hargrove.
Judging the contest was morning show personality Carol Lane of Goldsboro-based FM station WEQR, assisted by this year's fair queen, Hannah Singleton.
Coley's truck was by far the winner, Ms. Lane said, but by no means was the choice made easy by the other entrants.
"This was a tough decision, because it's a whole lot of ugly," Ms. Lane said.
Coley remembers when he bought the truck, from friend Les Wooten, for a whopping $250. The manifold pack was shot, but the truck looked better than it does now, Coley said.
Coley, a career truck driver with over 40 years on the road, was working for Wayne Wholesale when he bought the truck from Wooten, about 13 years ago.
Now driving a truck for John Street-based SouthCo, the truck driver said he realizes the years have not always been kind to his beloved Chevy.
The green-and-tan mix of colors is a result of multiple repairs to the truck, which hasn't had a paint job since Coley bought it, he said.
When asked about its appearance, the Ugly Truck winner is protective of the truck, at least at first.
"It ain't ugly, it looks good to me -- it'll carry me and bring me," Coley said.
He will admit some flaws, however.
"There's some rust spots. The back fender is bent. The dash is all beaten out and chewed up," he said.
Perhaps that's why wife Annie refuses to ride in it -- when they goes out on the town, the pair drive her 2006 Pontiac Montana mini van.
Coley said he heard about the contest last year.
"I looked in the paper last year and saw the contest, and I said 'I could have won that.' Everybody said why don't you go down there and sign up."
When he brought his beloved vehicle to the fairgrounds to sign up, the man taking the applications picked Coley to win immediately.
"I came out here on Wednesday. I went down to the south end, and the man said, 'Man, you already won it already.'"