As the young and successful Canadian artist takes up his aerosol spray can to paint on canvas, he envisions a fresh take on old-school graffiti from the 1980s. Jordan Childs is just 27, but he works, dreams, and most certainly drives old-school—carrying on a legacy passed down from four generations of Childses: in the form of a truck.
That truck is a 1967 Chevrolet C-10 Sidestep—originally teal but later painted firebird-red and now sunny-yellow—and many souls helped get it going again.
“All the parts in the truck are from different family members,” Mr. Childs, from Ottawa, told The Epoch Times. “It was my great-grandfather’s, then it was passed down to my grandfather who passed away at a young age. And then it was passed along to my dad when he was 15.”
An old farm truck, it drove from 1968 till 1996 when it needed major mechanical work, and Mr. Childs’s dad hadn’t the means to get it repaired so instead kept it, hoping to hand it down to his own son. Meanwhile the first and oldest owner of the truck—Mr. Childs’s 95-year-old great-grandpa, Bill—never expected to see it running again.
So, it came as the greatest surprise for Bill when the young artist pulled up in the truck with his dad, hoping to rekindle old memories. The very young and new-school Mr. Childs video-recorded the priceless reunion on his smartphone, of course, and Bill’s reaction did later go majorly viral on Instagram.
Bill first heard the familiar sound and his head popped up, Mr. Childs said. Then Bill, who is “very old-school,” made a very funny joke:
“Times must be rough if you’re driving that!” he said.
He found what he witnessed almost unbelievable, even more so when he popped the hood and saw that the original engine—the old farm truck had gone through four over the years—had been restored to brand-new condition.
It also brought back dear memories.
“I just think it reminded him of his son,” Mr. Childs said. “That was the motive, the whole purpose of rebuilding the truck, basically.”
The graffiti artist now carries on the Childs legacy by making the ’67 Chevy his daily driver, traveling to art shows and brick-and-mortar clients, where he throws up old-school-inspired murals on walls across Ottawa. He has painted the interiors of flashy auto works showrooms, sneaker stores, roofing companies, and a lot more. He also has plenty of private and commercial clientele from the graffiti world capital, New York City.
Although his 56-year-old pickup now drives like a dream, that first day, when they took Bill for his first drive in the truck in 40 years, gave them a few big scares.
“We took it on its first drive to Pembrook, and I actually have a video of that drive,” Mr. Childs said, adding that Pembrook is two hours from Ottawa. “The truck broke down three times during that drive.”
About a quarter of the way there, it stalled, and they called a family friend, Richard, who took out the carburetor, cleaned it, brought it back, installed it, and got them going again. Then, in the middle of nowhere, it stalled again, and they figured out that the extremely old and rusty fuel tank was leaking into the carburetor, making the engine stall.
“So, on the side of the road, [my stepdad] had to rebuild the carburetor,” Mr. Childs said. “It’s pretty scary because if you drop any parts, it’s game over.”
But they managed to get it running and then raced to Pembroke, where they realized the fuel gauge was actually defunct; they ran out of fuel and came to a dead halt. It was “just pure luck,” Mr. Childs said, “but we literally stalled at a gas station.”
But perhaps it was something more than just luck, he surmises. “Definitely a lot of souls were driving the truck at that point,” he said, adding that they immediately installed a new fuel filter to stop the leaking, and the truck is now “running really smooth.” “I’ve been driving it to work and it’s been pretty good the whole time.”
The young artist also drove it to his dad’s cottage in Calabogie, where “every old guy was stopping me, wanted to talk about the truck,” he said. “At the gas stations, they’re like, ‘Wow, I haven’t seen this in a long time.’” His dad’s neighbors were blown away as the whole truck and interior were custom handmade. The web community also fell in love with the story of how a farm truck was reunited with a great-grandfather in Canada, as the video garnered over a million views.
Today, old-school legacies continue to live on as Mr. Childs willingly carries forward the torch of both his hip-hop-inspired artistic style and his family truck. He appreciates his dad’s setting it aside for him, opting for a family vehicle over an antique for enjoyment. The father hadn’t the money to get the old pickup running again.
He “actually preserved the body, ensuring that it was in good shape when he gave it to me,” Mr. Childs said, adding that his father kept the rust off while his stepdad also contributed, handling all the mechanical work later on.
When asked if he plans to hand the Chevy down to his son one day, Mr. Childs, who is now engaged, answered, “Oh yeah, definitely. And the truck was made in Canada, too, which is really neat.”
