The Old days are dying and the New drivers only smell like they have.

It´s all in the Family...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IBKNuHJgrg

 

I can definitely agree with your outlook. I have always had the opinion that if an able bodied man cannot make his own way in the world...then he has no place here. The problem with that is, for what ever the reason, parents have turned our boys into irresponsible slackers, and our girls into drama seeking sociopaths. Now Im not sayin all the kids are like that, but I would put money on a figure of about 75%. My grandfather would be turnin in his grave if he could see what this country has come to. I was fortunate enough to spend alot of time with him when I was young. He told me alot about the depression era and how our family survived it. I sincerely believe that an event like a depression would wipe out most of the folks below the age of 30.:smt089

 

I often feel the same way myself when I think about the priorities now-a-days. But every time I go into my own rant about this, I feel old 'cause I can remember my parents (who were born in the early 1900's) saying the same thing about us.

Heck, the depression wiped out a lot of folks in the 1920's, too... and a lot of them were young people. But somehow, we managed to emerge even stronger.

Maybe it's survival of the fittest, human style?

I know I am concerned for my own two children. While they are both successful in "their" worlds -- meaning my daughter has a college degree, is gainfully employed, and maintains a probably flawless credit rating... and my son is a Dean's List student in college -- they show little interest in learning what I consider to be basic, bare-bones survival skills. As the expression goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink"... <sigh>

I shudder to think how they'd cope in a depression. But as they have many times before, they've surprised me with their adaptability. I only hope that those skills we were able to teach them early on have managed to permanently occupy some space in their gray matter upstairs.

 

That is EXACTLY the reason why I spend a few hours on the weekend while I am home to completely clean the truck inside and out, as well as underneath. I don't want to give the DOT man any reason to say, "Hey, that truck looks like a piece of crap... let's pull him in for a full inspection."

I even go so far as to carry two cans of 96 cent Walmart spray paint—one in white and one in flat black. The white is for the wheels—I touch them up after a visit with the pressure washer. The black is for rusty, nasty looking areas like the frame, brake chambers, differentials, etc. You'd be amazed at what lipstick can do for a pig.

A $5.94 jug of Purple Power, also from Walmart, applied with a pump sprayer and then blasted with a pressure washer... works wonders under the hood. Everything will be sparkly new looking.

 

Cleanliness is close to godliness... So... Im goin to hell in a handbasket so I guess I can just let my truck stay dirty!

 

A lot of this "hatein" on the new guys is unwarranted. I started driving truck ten years ago when I was 22. Truckers already were stereotyped as fat, stinky, slobs back then. In many cases it was well deserved. The best compliments I would get from waitresses were, "You're a truck driver? You don't look like a truck driver."
So for the new guys. You don't have to look like a dork with the denim shirt tucked into the denim pants with the big belt buckle and chain drive wallet and cell phone in its holster. Or wear a cowboy hat and boots even though there is not a horse in sight. Wear what you want. Just take a shower every other day or so.

 

I get the same compliments. Gotta love it. I do like my chain drive wallet though. Maybe because pops got it for me and hell.. I love anything pops gets for me.

 

The crime rate would be insane. Self defence killings would be on up there as well. I think i could hack a depression. It would suck.. but I'd survive.