Muffled Cries of a Bedbug

I always said that someday I'd write a book about all the my trucking stories. Give it the name that got me to this blog, "Tales of a Truck Driver", you know that joke. Some of them I actually lived, some of them I know to be true, and some of them were stories conceived by bored old road dogs. Twenty or more years ago there weren't as many truck stops as there is now, and none of them were quite as big. Most drivers' would just find a spot close to where they were going and camp out for the night. When they did get together at a diner or small truck stop, they'd sit for hours spinning tails, telling jokes making each other laugh and forget about being alone so much.
That's where this story comes from, you see I was a furniture mover. A big Irish kid with a strong back. The only the good about being a "Bed Bugger", was most of the time you carried your helper with you. Later on I figured that out to be a pain in the ###. Before I got my own wheels, my mentor that taught me the ropes was a larger than life type of guy. His name was Courtney, but some of his old friends called him Reco. He's always show me his old pictures from the fifties, he looked like Elvis. He had been in the Airborne in Korea, so he was in pretty good shape for his age. He also had been driving for 15 - 20 years, so he had some trucking stories. Before me and maybe two other guys had worked with him, he had a guy named Earl.
Earl was a wirery fellow with a high enoying voice. I know this because I later met him, that's how I heard the story. When they ran together it was the early sixties. In fact, they either worked for Greyhound Van Lines or Pyramid both long gone. That was when Greyhound tried to be in the furniture business. They were in Oxnard, California when they got a load going to Texas. It was a big load, so it took them all day to load the truck. By the time they had finished, it was pretty late in the day. It also had slipped their minds about calling to have some money wired. Their shipper already the phones turned off and there were no cell phones back then. So they pooled their money together to figure out their options.
They'd have to go to a truck stop to get the money, that way they wouldn't have to pay to cash it and there was one near Indigo. Trouble was they only had enough cash on hand to either stay in a room and not eat. Or they could sleep in the truck, eat and have a couple of beers to make it easier to sleep. Of coarse they chose to eat, they were starving. Reco had driven the 100 or so miles, so he just wanted to eat mostly. Sure he drank a beer, but 10 minutes later he fell asleep. Meanwhile, Squirley Earl stayed up and finished the beer. He knew Reco was driving in the morning, so why not. Oh and did I mention that back then there weren't any KINGSIZE, DOUBLEBUNK, WALK IN, STAND UP SLEEPERS.
Now Courtney had a fine rig for the times, but it was only a single bunk cracker box International. So his helpers always had to sleep in the trailer. Earl didn't mind though, he always managed to make a plush bed out of furniture pads. Only this time because the load had been so big, they had tied it off with the shippers' mattresses and it went all the way to the back doors. Leaving just enough room on top for Earl to make his perch. The matts were strapped criss cross and he had several pads across the top, so he was pretty comfortable.
Through the coarse of the night, because Earl had drank so much beer. He'd climb down to releave himself. Then climb back up. He had done it so many times that he hadn't noticed the straps were getting loose. Eventually, they had become so loose that when he pulled himself up, as he went over the first set of beds, they all spread apart and he fell head first between them. There he was upside down, between the mattresses and the box springs that were upright holding back the load of furniture.
Next morning Courtney got up and did his logs drinking a cup of coffee. Not even thinking about Earl, he never was the first to get up. When he decided to check for his running money, he walked to the back of the truck to wake up Earl. That's when he discovered the door wasn't pulled all the way shut and started to give Earl what for, but he heard something. A faint crackly voice calling "REE-COO HELP", he quickly climbed into the trailer and undid the straps to free ol' Earl. There he was still suspended upside down, and embeded into the mattress. Courtney couldn't help but laugh, but he still felt sorry for Earl and let him sleep halfway to Texas....."TRUE STORY"

 

Thanks LuckyLady7...I sware just like the old guys used to say sitting at the Union 76 coffee shop , when they started telling me the story it began ...."Man you ain't gonna believe this stuff" and ended with " True story", (that's what makes that joke so funny). I've got a few more, maybe I'll write 'em down sometime.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU TOO"