A Confession

This could come in the length of a book but I'll try to keep it short. The main point is that the old guys were right, most of the time, when I didn't want anything to do with them as a younger driver.

Approaching 50 years of age I felt like it was a good time to acknowledge all those that came before, and whom I mostly disregarded, and treated like they didn't know anything. I was one of those blazing the trail as a notorious "new breed" in the late 90's early 2000's. I was a college drop out, or more accurately college didn't like me, and yet trucking didn't like me either. I was somewhere in between. I would use my van trailer as a tennis backboard on down time to keep my tennis skills sharp and juggle a hacky sack while holding 25lb weights in both hands to stay in shape.

I was also all in on the latest technology, with my old brick of a laptop, running Microsoft Streets and Trips (USB GPS on dash) before there were any GPS devices. "New Breed" was a term I would hear over and over again. And that turned me more against the "Old Breed" every time I heard it. I did everything I could to not look like them, act like them, eat like them, or drive like them. It was my sole mission to not become old and bitter as I perceived most of them to be.

But in the end, they were right. And that goes for just about any working class type of job. You should listen to the old guys. That doesn't mean you should become old and bitter. But there is a reason they have become that way and it was not their choice, though many succumbed to it. You think if you do everything right, and are loyal to the company, follow the rules, obey your dispatchers, etc., that you will be getting ahead in the game. I only belonged to a Union in one job, and I'm not here to debate that. But all you have to do is look at history and see that the working man is a perpetual figure of dishonor, ridicule, and satire. It doesn't matter how much money you make.

I thought that I could beat the stereotype by maintaining my bourgeois sentiments, characteristics, and attitudes. But this just made me more of a fool than anything. While trying to pick up women, consistent with my upbringing, the mere mention of anything "trucking" would be the end of that. I should have conformed to all the characteristics of the working man in the beginning. It's been a long fight and I have lost. I finally bought an old pick up, have tools, and learned to fix things. I always hated old pick ups and Harley's and now I have a Harley also. I used to despise the old long-nose Peterbilts and semis mostly just because I didn't like those who drove them. And now my next semi will probably be one of those.

And while I have started to like Western music, like The HIghwaymen, I still don't like the new Country-Western. Yet I also like classical music and some opera (please forgive me for I have sinned) and the Grateful Dead and some old hippie music. I've traded in my polo shirts for more western, working attire and boots. Yet, still on occasion, when I have to go to the other side, you might see me in slacks and a polo, or a jogging suit. And isn't the tennis weather great right now?

 

Yes, too much use of the word "I". While I appreciate all the positive feedback, this is really just a self-centered rant focusing on myself.

You are are right. If I thought of others more, and did more to help others, I wouldn't be so self-centered. This is true.

Yes I have started several books and not finished.