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NEW ULM - It's only right that an antique bus with connections to Marti family history will be part of August Schell Brewery's 150th anniversary celebration next September and other public events to come.

Late Thursday afternoon, a converted 1948 Flxible (pronounced flexible) Clipper highway coach that hailed from Altoona, Pa. was slowly unloaded from a trailer at the brewery.

Previously converted to a motor home, the gas-powered, rear-engine bus will be redone inside and out to promote and contain Schell's breweriana at parades and other public events.

Schell's owner Ted Marti's interest in the Flxible bus piqued when he learned that the firm had connections with Grumman Corporation, which made U.S. military aircraft including one that his father Warren Marti flew in World War II.

Plans are still being made but a parade will be part of Schell's 150th Anniversary Celebration, to be held Sept. 11-18, 2010 in New Ulm.

During their heydays in the '40s and '50s, more than 5,000 Clippers roamed the highways for Greyhound and Trailways bus companies.

(Fritz Busch can be e-mailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).