A labor of love

Many drivers can remember the day they fell in love with big trucks. OOIDA life member Denver Bellamy remembers it like it was yesterday.

“It was fire truck red,” he fondly recalls.

Bellamy, a 58 year-old driver and lifelong resident of Palmetto, Fla., was introduced to trucking by his father at the age of 4. The second-generation driver has been at it for nearly 38 years. He says his love for trucks is the same today as it was when his dad put him in the seat of his old GMC.

“He got in the truck and he pushed that button, and that truck started, and I freaked out,” Bellamy said. “He was actually trying to grab me to keep me from jumping out, because he put the truck in gear and the truck started moving, and I was going to jump out the window! When he grabbed me, and he grabbed that first gear, I was hooked. That was it. That was my destiny. I was in love with trucks. It was in me then, and it remains in me now.”

That early love of big trucks led him to another passion: building models of semis.

As a child, Bellamy was an avid Hot Wheels collector. In fact, he still is. The move to building the trucks he loved just made sense. What began as a hobby around the age of 12 has grown into a collection of nearly 100 trucks. That doesn’t include ones in his “scrap yard,” where Bellamy harvests parts to complete or alter other models.

While his collection has grown quite large, there is still one model that has a special place in his heart: a Kenworth K100 cabover.

“My father and I, we used to run doubles together, hauling seafood out of Louisiana to New York City,” Bellamy said. “He had a K100, and we worked a truck until it just couldn’t be worked no more. And then he found a guy that had a white one that was stretched out just a little bit. When I got that kit, that’s what hit in my mind. I said, ‘I’m going to build this truck here, similar to look just like that one there.’ And that’s the one that really is sort of sentimental to me.”

While he admits that finding model kits is becoming increasingly difficult – and new designs nearly impossible – that hasn’t stopped him from adding to his collection. For Bellamy, building models is a way to relax while showcasing his love for trucking. A love that is as bright as it was all those years ago.

Read more about truckers and their passion for the industry here. LL