Springdale UPS driver strikes YouTube gold

— Ken Jones fired up his cell-phone camera in late November to make a video for his family.

Instead, Jones, 41, created a video that has gone viral — watched so far by more than 300,000 people on You-Tube — and gained the attention of ABC News, Good Morning America, Yahoo and ryanseacrest.com.

“It snowballed,” Jones said. “I didn’t even put it up on YouTube. I don’t even know how that works.”

Jones, who works for the United Parcel Service distribution center in Springdale, spends a lot of his time driving from stop to stop, he said. He used his time to make up new words to the holiday song “Winter Wonderland.”

“I’d been telling my son, Payton, that UPS worked for Santa Claus,” Jones said. “Some of the words came from what I’d told him.”

Although Jones, a Springdale resident, and his wife, Brandy, have children from earlier marriages, they say Payton, 5, is special.

“He weighed 1 pound, 8 ounces when he was born,” Jones said. “I’m so happy to have him; I’ve spoiled him.”

During a break, Ken Jones recorded himself singing his new lyrics while in the cab of his truck. He sings about his holiday work — delivering to little children — and asking people to fence up the dogs and leave the light on at night.

“If you don’t understand, I’ll say it again, Santa is your UPS man,” he finishes up, before saying, “This was recorded during a scheduled break.”

At 1 minute and 12 seconds long, the video was too big to be sent to his wife as an attachment to a text message, he said.

“I put it up on Facebook so she and Payton could see it,” Jones said. “My friends saw it and started saying I should put it on YouTube. I didn’t know how.”

The video, titled “Santa Drives a Brown Truck,” has been watched 8,000 times since it went up on Facebook on Nov. 29. Tim Bryant, Ken Jones’ brother, put a copy on YouTube on Dec. 5, with a slight name change, “Santa Drives a Big, Brown Truck.”

Views topped 100,000 by Dec. 11, according to the ABC News website. It reached 250,000 by Dec. 13, Ken Jones’ birthday. It crossed the 300,000 mark the next day.

“I don’t know what people would have thought about it if I really could sing,” Jones said. “They probably wouldn’t have liked it.”

Comments on YouTube showed people approved. BryanDramasDen wrote, “This is awesome had to blast it on Facebook for people to see.”

MrCarter724 wrote, “They should use this as a UPS commercial! Too funny.”

The video has been reposted by other YouTube members, and a take-off, called “UPS Girl,” also has been posted.

Springdale Mayor Doug Sprouse said he thought the video was funny.

“It’s always great when some of our folks bring good publicity to the city,” Sprouse said while e-mailing his wife a link to the video.

The season needed a little levity, Jones said.

“People are worried about the ‘fiscal cliff ’ and everything,” Jones said. “Maybe this will help them laugh and get into the Christmas spirit.”

Arkansas, Pages 21 on 12/23/2012

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