Owners Testing Waters For Right ‘Toe’ Hold

Wed., May 3, 2000

From Staff

A history museum wants it. A candymaker dreams of “toes” in white chocolate.

It seems there’s no shortage of loving homes awaiting the “Toe Truck,” Seattle’s beloved pink foot-shaped tow truck that advertises its home of Lincoln Towing at the busy Mercer Street exit off Interstate 5.

The city, which has long leased the land to the towing company, is selling to developers - and the Toe - a 20-year-old Volkswagen microbus topped with giant Styrofoam-and-fiberglass toes - must go.

But where? Owners Ed and Connie Lincoln want to donate the truck to a place in Seattle where many people could visit and appreciate it.

Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry - home to Seattle’s hydroplane racer Slo-Mo-Shun IV - wants to be first in line.

Co-owner Connie Lincoln is intrigued by white-chocolate sample candies - toe-shaped and foot-shaped - received by mail from local candymaker Kathy Moeller.

If her candy company can have the Toe Truck, Moeller wrote, she will market pink candies and donate proceeds to a charity.

Mark Reed of Federal Way wants to place the Toe atop an old brewery alongside I-5 so traffic reporters could say: “The toe is jammed.”

Towing buffs are waiting to welcome the Toe, which never actually towed vehicles, to a place of honor at the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The Toe originated when a stranger wandered into the towing office and sketched an imaginary truck on a napkin. Ed decided to build it for real.

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