Before Interstates

I wasn't trucking then, but as a kid I remembered rest areas actually had their own showers too. Athletes foot anyone?

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Before ? Your profile says you're 37 years old and been trucking 5 years ? What exactly is your point? At one point in time hundreds of sailors would have loved a gps or at least an accurate way of determining longitude so they didn't die of thirst helplessly looking for landfall! Would you prefer to be driving an ox wagon with square wheels instead of your modern tractor-trailer?

 

It looks to me like he's reminiscing on the old times. I'm only 22, almost 23 now and heck, I miss the 90's. And you've only been trucking for 2 years? That's 3 years you know nothing about.

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Your so called GOOD OL DAYS were not that good , the food was not always GOOD , most places had NO showers , nothing like lining up at the payphone behind 20 other drivers and hope you had enough CHANGE to make the call and that someone actually ansewered the phone. Oh and we still have MAPS just seems like today no one knows how to read them , as for SCALES you had to find them when you needed 1and not many on the side of the road

 

Well I DID truck before all the interstates. (there were some, but we were busy building like crazy back then)
I ran old emigrant hill on US 30, Lewiston grade and White Bird. All before Jakes.
No...there wasn't AC, Jakes, sliding 5th wheels (or sliding tandems). No air bags, just steel leaf springs. Most truck stops were small gravel lots (at least out in the west where I drove) that had chuck holes big enough to swallow a volkswagon. Canopies over the fuel pumps were rare. Showers were the size of a phone booth with dark dingy lighting.
We didn't have bunk heaters. The sleepers were big enough for a 30" cot size mattress. Access in my 68 Freightliner COE was thru the window opening where the glass was removed.
At the end of each drive shift, you picked up your dental fillings from the floor and glued them back in. (well, maybe I'm exagerating a LITTLE).
Virtually every truck stop had a restaurant with waitresses that had been there a hundred year. But they knew to keep your coffee cup full, your meal hot and fast and good conversation.
The blue plate special depended on what had been left over, or they had bought on special.
but it was usually good.
No, there weren't cell phones, pagers portable electronics, tv's or many other of todays essentials.
I can remember trodding across muddy lots, fueling in the rain or snow and a 400 mile day being really good.
But what does everyone remember so fondly?
I think it was the commoderie amongst the drivers.
Every morning when you were in a metro area anyway, the drivers grabbed a cup of coffee and stood around a big city map posted on the wall, figuring out the route to their drop. Everyone talked and joked and helped each other find the place, warn were there was a low bridge or construction. And as I remember, the coffee was in a big thick mug...not a flimsy paper cup.
It was not uncommon to stop and help someone stopped on the side of the road and the CB was a God send. Both to warn of situations ahead and to keep each other awake (for those like me that drove mostly at night). We all got to know each other by our 'handles'. Wrachet, Gearbox, Country Boy, and others. (I was Crazy Dago). We knew each other's girlfriends, wives, children and such thru the CB.
Radios were AM, but we all had a tape deck for our 8 tracks.
For people like me who had spent my time as a tour guide in Southeast Asia, singers like Cash, Merle, Buck and Porter let us be proud of our service, unlike so many of those that condemned us as baby killers.
Yea, times were different.
But better?
Quien sabe.
I can say for certain tho, we were proud of what we did and who we were and we didn't apologize to anyone for being a trucker.
Well, time for this old crumudgeon to go back and sit down.

 

Well I guess I just fell out of the sky two years ago! Poster is the same age as me so what exactly had he experienced that I have not in the same amount of lifes experiences??????

 

I remeber before I got my cell using the payphones in NYC and hoping somebosy answered at Stevens dispatch before the time limit expired.

 

Truly states a picture.

I remember when I started in 1999. Not many cell phones. Used mainly pay phones. No gps. Maps and notes.

Never drank coffee, but there were many talks with the drivers in the lounge.

Now, many places no lounge.