By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
MELVINDALE — Despite the threat of rain throughout the weekend, the Melvindale Street Fair Aug. 13 and 14 offered booths with crafts and festival foods, musical entertainment on two stages, and chance to chat and stroll with friends.
“Touch a Truck,” a new entry in the lineup, was popular with young children, who enjoyed getting behind the wheel of different trucks and utility vehicles, including a popular John Deere 35G excavator.
Two other trucks were on display but off limits to riders: a 1925 American LaFrance, Melvindale’s first motorized fire truck, and a military surplus 1952 Dodge Power Wagon used by the city’s police department as a utility vehicle during the ’70s and ’80s. Sold at auction, a resident bought it, and kept it for 25 years, intending to restore it, until he donated it to the Melvindale Historical Commision in 2012.
(Sue Suchyta can be reached at [email protected])