My first load 52 years ago. Trucking ain't the same, but has really changed

Don't know but I have a Big Pecker.

 

My first trip was 51 yrs ago too but danged if I remember much.
Flew me out to Spokane to recover a Transtar eagle.
Driver bailed and although it stunk of cat pee it was mine. Didn't even have a class A yet but figured I was a trucker.
One failed test later I was now a legal one, learning the ropes one day at a time.
51 plus yrs later I retire in October.
Been a good career. One that has provided well for us.
This kinda sums it up...

 

It was probably driver pee. Reyco suspension in a short wheelbase and a rough bridge abutment made it hard to get it all in the bottle.

 

That hair and that smell..
It was cat whiz.
I don't remember peeing in bottles back in the day.
Always had time to stop and run as we saw fit. Not to mention with paper we were always legal..lol

 

AM radio, spring ride seat, been there, done that

 

A cassette player was a step up from my 8-track.
Still have a box full somewhere.

 

My dad gave me a chrome four track that came out of his international Emeryville when I first started driving. First time I ever got to drive was going back from pepper pack in denver in a 69 diamond Rio 60-40 seat with a 4 x 4 335 Cummins I was 15. My uncle would let me drive late at night going back empty. First solo trip was a load of cows from La veta Colorado to rifle Colorado to the Bell ranch in 1980. I was driving a short hood 1980 Peterbilt conventional with a coffin sleeper. 290 Cummins with a 13 speed. Looking back I guess I was spoiled. Was driving truck for one of my dad's old friends. After that if I wasn't hooked to a Bull rack, I was pulling a 28 foot end dump. Would load volcanic decorative rock from antonito Colorado to Denver dump there then go to Yuma Colorado load corn, take that load to onjuta feeds in Albuquerque and make the whole round over again.

 

290 or a 318 Detroit with a 13 speed was the order of the day mostly.
I drove a 16 speed Spicer for a while.
Started with a 42 and 45 ft flatbed.
Never learned proper securement but made sure nothing ever moved..overkill by today's standards.

 

I think most of us broke a leaf or 2 on that miserable stretch. Ironic, isn't it? Today we glide along freshly paved highways(?) with air ride this and that, and back in the 70s/80s, the roads were so rough and we had spring ( or no spring) ride. It was a major PITA replacing leaves too. Those walking beam were the worst. I think garbage trucks still use them today. REYCO, by far the most common, at least had some give.

 

REYCO, or Hendrickson