In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles, Curatorial Assistant Autumn Shaner knew they had to come up with a special event.
“In my opinion it is very important to keep the younger generations involved in their local history, and with food trucks being huge right now, I thought this event would be a perfect fit.” Shaner came up with the idea for The Truck Stops Here – Mobile Madness, an event to showcase food trucks built during the 50’s – 70’s at the Boyertown Auto Body Works.
Two trucks will be ‘returning home’ to Boyertown specifically for this event: the Ocean Roll Truck, from Kennebunkport, Maine, is a truck built in 1961 to be used for Maine’s Civil Defense. The original blueprints for this truck are located in the Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles’ archives.
Shaner said “little is known about how the Civil Defense of Maine became a Boyertown Auto Body Works customer, but it seems this truck may be the only mobile canteen built for Civil Defense.” The Ocean Roll Truck will be serving fresh lobster rolls.
The second truck is a Mister Softee ice cream truck. Shaner mentions that Boyertown Auto Body Works built trucks for multiple mobile ice cream vendors, however, Mister Softee was Boyertown’s largest customer in the auto body industry and their first production of trucks came from Boyertown in 1958. And of course, the Mister Softee truck will be serving their delicious ice cream.
Other food trucks that will be serving food are: The Cow and the Curd – serving battered fried cheese curds, Luscious Bakery – serving brunch inspired foods from European and American cafes, Gourmand – serving street food items with a Berks County twist, Local 215 – serving locally sourced artisan foods, and more. To keep with the local theme, Shaner said all of the food trucks are from Southeastern Pennsylvania.
There will also be activities for all ages. Magician, Mike Paldino will be entertaining, DJ Code Freeze will be mixing some music, Rainbow the Clown will be making balloon animals, Felicia’s Face and Body painting will be available for face painting and Bob Swaim, collector and presenter of unique bicycles and human powered vehicles.
The Truck Stops Here – Mobile Madness will be held Saturday, June 20, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles’ parking lot across the street from the Museum with parking for event-goers being held at St. John’s Lutheran Church, National Penn Bank and Morell Funeral Home. The entrance fee is $5 and includes admission to both the museum (with a special exhibit in the gallery showing the history of food trucks and how the Boyertown Auto Body Works manufactured these vehicles) and the fair.
