We are all used to celebrating the birth of someone, some place, some sort of landmark in our history but for Warwick native Fred Carello, the 50th birthday of the Ford Econoline van is cause for jubilation. He’s inviting some of its oldest friends to a party at his house on Sunday and anyone who’s interested in why the truck, which started as a lowly utility vehicle for tradesmen and small businesses, has garnered so much loyalty over the years is encouraged to attend.

“They are different looking,” he said, “and once you buy one, you stick with them.”

Carello bought his first Econoline in 1972, while he was a student at Toll Gate High School and continued a then nascent cult tradition of customizing it to suit himself.

“If you bought an Econoline and restored it to its original state, you’d just have a big box,” said Carello. “I put Mustang seats and Gremlin wheels on my ’64 model. As soon as they realized that you could do things with the truck, people began to customize them.”

Since then, Carello estimates that he’s owned, or worked on, at least 30 Econolines and he has always managed to find someone who wants one.

“Some were nice and some weren’t very nice, some you would have been embarrassed to get into,” he said. “I’ve owned some I never actually drove.”

Carello says he almost always knows someone who will want what he buys. He said he bought several vans just because they were from the Southwest and had very little rust and, as any other owner will tell you, parts are precious.

“You have few choices for parts. There are very few aftermarket replacement parts, so most owners have to buy them used or make the parts themselves.”

Carello said they are people who sell homemade parts and kits on the Internet but most are not interested in making a lot of money. He said there are Internet sites devoted to the van that have over 1,100 members, which is substantial for a blunt-nosed, hopelessly cute machine but not enough to found a fortune in the aftermarket Econoline field, even if the Econoline has been one of the most consistently successful products Ford Motors ever made.

The Ford Econoline was introduced in 1961 as a compact van and its descendants are still produced today. The first was based on the compact Ford Falcon. It had a flat nose with the engine between and behind the front seats, a configuration later adopted by its competitors. Early models had a 144 cid 6-cylinder engine with a manual 3-speed transmission. Later models had a 170 CID or 240 CID engines with an automatic transmission.

It was an immediate success with utilities like the Bell Telephone System and other service-oriented companies.

“I once had a [former] Westinghouse van that you could still see the original lettering on and I drove that everywhere,” said Carello, “until someone offered to buy it from me.”

Although he is now known as one of the top custom auto upholsterers in the country, Carello started his career as a mechanical engineer out of Cornell University and started working part time at an auto upholstery shop in Ithaca, NY, while he was studying. It was there at Welco Custom, where he worked with guys who were very particular about what they did and insisted on quality at every step along the way.

“They knew that, when something left their shop, it had their name on it and they valued their reputation,” said Carello. “That has stayed with me.”

Carello said he fell in love with Ithaca and decided to work in the Finger Lakes region after college. He worked for several companies but mostly at Eastman Kodak, doing product development and efficiency studies but, as the upstate economy changed, Carello decided that New England was not so bad after all and he moved back. He continued as a mechanical engineer but began to do more and more custom upholstery. By 1990, he realized he could support himself and his family doing specialty automotive work for a very discerning group of collectors. He restored the interior of a 1961 Maserati that was featured at the Paris Auto Show and once did the interior for the survivor of a pair of De Tomasso convertibles for a Connecticut collector.

“The other convertible was lost at sea, on the way to America,” said Carello.

When times were very good, for the country and the custom car market, Carello had more work than time to do it in. If you wanted an interior redone, the wait was about one year.

“Now, with the money less available, people have to wait about six months to get a complete interior,” Carello said, a little sadly.

He did well enough to raise a son and a daughter with his late wife, Susan. His son Adam still lives in Warwick and his daughter Sammantha lives in West Warwick with his grandsons, Jaron and Trevor. Susan died of brain cancer last May, leaving Carello and his family with the loss of a loved one and a steady source of support.

“She used to be a great help to me, even when she was working full time at other jobs,” said Carello. “She always called people back and made sure I got the work done.”

Carello confessed that the last couple of years his life were consumed by his wife’s illness but now that it’s over, he ready to get back to work and they things he loves, like cars, trucks and railroads.

“I have a full-size railroad in my backyard,” he said. “I haven’t done that much with it lately but I’m trying to get back to it now.”

Carello said he has friends who keep an eye out for old railroad equipment and he has added crossing signs, crossing lights and other railroad ephemera to add to the 77-foot standard gauge roadbed and rails that cut across his back yard on Leigh Street. But, if times get better and more people can return to customizing or restoring collectable cars, he may never get the time. Econolines continue to appear on the lawn of Carello’s backyard, overnight and stealthy, like mushrooms that bloom in the moonlight and demanding of attention and it’s not likely they will stop cropping up. It’s almost as if the vans know they have found a home. There is just one reason Carello gives for his abiding affection for the 50-year-old icon.

“It’s a really cool truck,” he explained.

Econoline vans will begin gathering on the lawn at 71 Leigh St. around noon on Sunday, Aug. 21. Grilled food and cold beverages will be served. The public is invited. No cover charge.