Teen's birthday present was part of the parade
Keagan McCracken got a pickup truck that’s been in the family for years during the Heritage Days parade for his 16th birthday.
A Columbia Falls teen got a special gift for his 16th birthday during the Heritage Days Parade — a restored pickup truck. Keagan McCracken’s late grandfather, Monte Senner, promised the youth the 1978 Ford Ranger pickup when McCracken turned 16.
Senner had bought it new off the showroom floor, McCracken said. But the years had taken its toll on the rig and it was in bad shape the last time McCracken saw it sitting in the backyard.
So when the shiny blue truck rolled down the parade driven by his uncle, with a sign in the back that said “Happy 16th Birthday,” McCracken was taken aback.
“I was really surprised,” he said.
McCracken’s uncle Shilo Senner, grandma Barb Senner, and friend Jerome Gunderson spent months restoring the truck.
“I didn’t even know they were working on it,” McCracken said.
Now McCracken just needs a driver’s license. He got the truck on Saturday, but he only had a learner’s permit. He said he was going down to the Department of Motor Vehicles offices on Monday to take his road test and get his license.
McCracken will be a sophomore at Columbia Falls this fall. Now he’ll have one of the nicest rigs in the lot.