why does my grille differ

I,ve been noticing that my recently aquired 88 cheyenne has a different grille from other 88 chevy trucks. is it a trim level thing? I have the single square headlights with an milk crate grille. I notice other 88's as having the thinner headlight style.

is it a trim level thing?

Yes

also 88 was a in between year. my 88 gmc has the four square sealed beam headlights. also that year you might get the plastic light fixture with replaceable bulbs, common on everything now a days. it just depends and when it was built, early or late in the production run

i ws thinking that too cause it was built in october of 87