What Made You Get Into Trucking

That I'll made you an hero forever remembrance

 

You people were really trying both day and night kudos love you all

 

BJ and the bear. Nice truck, from what I remember.

 

When I was a kid my neighbor across the pasture had several bull wagons. Peterbilt 359s, B model Cat engines, straight pipes and chicken lights. I used to love the sound and sight of those trucks and swore I was going to drive one some day.

That dream stayed with me through the years. After high school I went off to college but that just wasn't for me. So I moved back home and started working as a mechanic because I had enjoyed turning wrenches as a hobby when I was younger. But I very quickly realized that I hated doing it as an occupation. So as soon as I turned 21 I started finding out what it was going to take to become a truck driver. The low barrier to entry combined with the earning potential is what sealed the deal for me.

 

I was also raised in a cattle-hauling family. I spent a lot of my youth trucking with my dad & other family members. I always wanted to drive but being the only boy in my family my mother forbid me driving. She resented my father being gone so much.

I retired from a great career January 2020 because I was burned out & needed a change. At least the job secured our financial future.

Last May my wife said I needed something to do. I was going stir crazy. I decided to enroll in a local CDL school. I've been driving for close to a year now & love it. I've been at my present job for a month & look forward to every day. I'm running regional, driving a 2021 Cascadia & pulling 53' refer. I'm home every weekend & two to four nights a week. It just suits me at my ripe old age of 65.

When I told my 88 year old mother I was going to drive truck she wasn't surprised. I told her that I figured she was too frail to punish me.

 

I got into trucking in 1974 ,for the money.
I have a high maintenance wife , she thinks she should eat a least 2 times a day and sleep in a dry warm place every night.

 

I grew up working on a grain and dairy farm. We had a Transtar that we used to run grain and hay. And I ran interstate with no CDL. Parents said farming is no life for me so I was sent off to college. Beat my head against the wall for many years in corporate life and hated most of it. I was a sad sack of ####. Started working for a major engine builder and got more experience on the mechanical side of things. Kids got all grown up and it was time. Absolutely scared (and still does at times) the heck out of the Mrs. I love what I do now.

Honestly though, I don't regret life. We have five great kids that are all contributing members of society. I try to convince myself that my time with them when I was younger did a little something for them. Things probably would be completely different today if my life took a different path back in the day.

I will also say unequivocally that without the folks I've met on TTR, I wouldn't be enjoying this profession anywhere near as much as I do.

 

This is OT but in the same vein this one old boy one time asked if I had ever spent anytime around biker gals. I said I had not. He tells me most of them ol biker gals are just looking for clean place where thtley can lie down.