The way things use to be

Keep it civil in here. Attack the post not the member.

 

It's so wonderful to see a post from you SP. Hope you're doing well. I enjoy reading your posts and words of wisdom. Thank you so much for sharing your stories from the days of old. I hope to see some of the past renewed.

 

Well, I don't know if I've got the stones (and so far I'm short on the skills, but I'm working on it) to catch up to a runaway truck and help stop it. But with my limited experience, I doubt I even would have thought of it.

If it really happened that way, my hat's off to you.

I don't want to call you a liar, but I've spent enough time around the old timers to have heard more than one tall tale. It never has stopped me from listening though.

 

That's half the fun of talking to the old hats. You get some great stories (we all embellish somewhat) and learn some things that you never would have even thought of. I for one think of us as all being in a brotherhood and try to treat others as such.

 

My ex-wifes uncle was an O/O in 1978. He had a cabover which was my first ride in a big truck. The noise and ride in the passenger seat with the window down was very uncomfortable to say the least.

I've got to say I don't think I could have done what he did.

I couldn't imagine being out there without direct deposit, online banking, broadband internet on my laptop, truck specific GPS, AIR CONDITIONING,
fuel cards, condo sleepers, satellite radio, Ipods, The Truckers Report!, etc.

It makes me wonder if Pearl Harbor were to happen tomorrow, would we have the same national response we had then.

 

my first ride was in about 72--an old b-mack--with my brother in law and some rubbie he found for lumping the feed bags---started off ok till we hit the ditch about 3 hrs into the day--he did on a greasy farm road turning the corner--ok got out of that with the help from a grader-got the first drop off--then they decided they had time to sit in the bar for a couple hours till the next drop---so --ok got that one of---and the bar called them again---ok to end a long drawn out storey--they both got hammered --started fighting in the truck--i was a scared 10 yr old pretty much crapping my pants--lumper starting driving--and almost wiped out a few cars--nother fight---bro in law started driving--was actually doing ok--until he got stopped by leo and a .08
and that was my first expirience in trucking

 

let me tell a short story... Ok my dad was fifty when i was born,, he drove truck in ww2 and drove for many companies after that he drove otr from 1943 to 1979 the last companie he drove for was EW Wylie out of fargo and Daggett before that... I was born in 1973... in 1979 we left minnesota... my sisters and i grew up the next 15 years on the road as transients or migrant workers what ever people called us... we sometimes were lucky enough to have a bus to call home... we worked the fields from mission, mccallen texas area to yuma arizona,the imperial valley ca.. up to the strawberries in oregon and apples in washington then finished out logging in montana in the fall then back to texas we went... we bummed churches for gas ate at missions stayed under bridges etc... as i said we had several old busses over the years the oldest being a 1949 white, it had a tachograph in it it was cool... when we traveled in our busses we would often park with the truck at truck stops I loved it I would sit up in the drivers seat of the old bus and just pretend... In the fall of 1983 we were headed south in utah almost to the arizona border on I15, we were headed to slab city in the imperial valley of california... we had a 1954 ford 2ton truck we had used in montana hauling scrap iron and posts out of the woods... dad had built a house on the back out of rough cutt 2x6 lumber and had a blue tarp for a roof.. when we traveled 50mph was tops we were cruising then... I had a little cassette player wired to the battery of the truck.. with an ear piece in one ear and my only tape was conway twitty... the 18 wheelers were passing us they were still shifting I loved it thats when I knew I was going to be a trucker... I was 10 then...some of you old timers may have seen us.. we were not hippies it was me mom and dad and my three sisters.. and some times we would have a home less person alon that we met along the way..anyway now im 37 have driven way over a million miles... at slabcity a camp for homeless people in southern ca i met a 16 year old homeless girl named tonya, we have been married 18 years now have a fifteen year old son and adopted twin baby girl out of fort pierce florida, there four now... oh yeah the first truck I drove otr was a 1979 kenworth K100 it was old and beat up but i was very proud ... im mining now but looking to get out...

 

wow---you sure had some travels as a kid virgil--maybe at the time it wasnt so great --but in hindsight--i bet you have some great memories

 

A little more to add,,I would like or love to get in an old b model mack and drive it cross country... as a kid and as part of my last story, I made many trips from minnesota montana northern ca etc on my own.. when I was 16 i was staying at my aunts farm in Granite falls minnesota, my mom and dad were staying in the dessert by ehrenberg arizona... dad got ahold of my aunt verla and said, i need tater down here, thats me... I left minnesota in august of 1989 I was only there two weeks was supposed to work on the farm during harvest... but anyway dad said he needed me down ther in Ehrenberg, he was given a bunch of scrap iron and neede my help ... so at 16 I left one afternoon in august it was hot... I was driving an old 1959 GMC pickup had no bed on it... the original 270 inline six, four speed, floor starter etc... let me say it was Quite the trip but i made it in three days. the old bias tires it had on it made me dream of concrete roads that had no rutts so it was not a wrestling match to drive.. throw out bearing went out generator went out... near exit five tom wells road on I 10 almost to ehrenberg, I was so tired and hot, The right steer tire on the pickup blew out and into the ditch i went... scared the crap out of me... I always told dad I drove it down into the ditch on purpose to get it off the highway... I would love to do that same trip over again and have my 15 year old son along for the ride...