How were the 'Good ol Days' different

How'z it road dust.. I'm a noob and I enjoy reading these older threads. As I started on page one I didn't realize till page 3 that it was from '09. It's very interesting to hear Allow Me's olden days in trucking. I was 8 yrs old in '76 when he started trucking and I can remember playing with my all steel yellow Tonka trucks! "Convoy" was a popular movie including C.W. McCall's song by the same name. A couple years after that, one of my favorite show's was BJ and the Bear in that red with white stripe K100. Always wanted to learn to drive a big rig truck "when I grew up" but mom and dad wouldn't hear it! As I got older my likes changed and by my teen years I didn't give to much thought about trucking as an occupation until well into my adult years. It took me over 20 years of screwing around going nowhere career wise until now. But now? In about a week I'll be starting at my first company! Kinda makes me feel like that kid again excited about the future.. Like you said, I started reminiscing about how life events change. And I really like where these changes are going.. I know trucking isn't going to be a bed of roses, but I like what I'm seeing so far. Must be the positive attitude.

 

Hey Interstate, Welcome to the forum! Yeah its an old thread but we can keep it going. Maybe some of the other newbies will want to hear some of it.

When I first started driving I can remember having two of those big audio tape suitcases in which you would keep all your tapes in (tapes are what you used to listen to before cd's). I also had a notebook and in there I had written down all my favorite radio stations and which cities and states I could hear them. I can remember every 60-80 miles switching the station to tune into the next city or towns local broadcast.

Something else that is a thing of the past is using the pay phones at the truck stops. There used to be a whole room with nothing but phone booths and a lot of the time you would have to wait in line until one was available. They also had pay phones at the tables in the restaurants. How about this, they used to have phone jacks in the parking spaces and you would back in and get out and plug in your phone cord to the jack. Instant home phone in your truck! Some old truck stops you can still see the jacks in the pavement.

I can also remember that in the trucks you didn't have electronic idle control. You either had a knob that you pulled out and adjusted the idle or if your truck was a p.o.s. you used a broom stick to mash down the fuel pedal to keep the idle up.

Pre-pass was invented yet either. That was definitely a good invention! The qualcomm satellites were fairly new and most companies did not have them. If you broke down in the middle of nowhere you had to rely on the good ol' CB Radio and your tool box! No cellphones! Well there were but they came in a 20lb bag and were only for the rich!

 

Awe, yes I remember those days you talk about as I grew up in the 70's and 80's.. The cassette suitcases no cell phone's except for the rich! The phone rooms and phone booths I couldn't imagine what that was like in trucking. But I guess it was all anyone knew so it was what it was. I've heard of the radio station note book because a friend of my dad's was a traveling salesman back in the 80's. I have also heard of, but more recently as to the creative ways to keep the idle up on the trucks that are equipped with the auto shutdown after 5 min's in order to keep the heat or A/C going. Breaking down in the middle of nowhere must've SUCKED!

 

The good ole' days were before the cops, dot, and state revenue agents discovered that trucks were really ATM's in disguise. The good ole days was before there were Qualcomms, cell phones, blackberry's, gps, and sundry other spy devices in the cab with the driver so a stupid never drove a truck dispatcher can micromanage your life. The good ole days was when a driver had to know how to read a map and plan his trip and not wait for the gps or qualcomm to tell him which route to take. The trucks today are more comfortable and easier to drive, but I would take my 1980 Pete COE over anything out there today. Just an opinion from an old dinosaur who hasn't had the good grace to go extinct yet.

 

Not to mention auto shifts and electronic log, huh. LOL. Thanks for posting. I'm glad guys like you are still out there.

 

Dang, now I really feel old when someone younger is explaining what "tapes" are. LOL. I remember having a manual choke knob on an old GMC I used to have. Did they have those on the big trucks too?

 

Nothing worth having is ever easy. I could listen to trucking stories all day long, and then some.

 

Lack of respect for one another. And it's not just in driving it's everywhere. People just flat out don't care about the next man. It's just an aww-####-it mentality from both the young and old.

Here's a prime example. Right now I'm at the Pilot on 65 in Indiana exit 16. When I pulled in there was and still is plenty of parking available. There "was" a driver next to me who had shut his rig down and cracked his windows to get some air. I noticed this as I was pulling in beside him so as a act of respect for someone I've never met I shut my truck down as to not wake him or the driver on my other side who had also shut down his truck. About 20 minutes later here comes super trucker, jake on pulling into a spot, Cruise set making all kinds of noise, yelling into his phone. When asked if he'd please shut down or move his response was go #### yourself. Typical.

 

I remember those trucks where the bed was literally right behind the front seats, lol. It sucks that pay has changed very little while other conditions have changed drastically. It seems like a lot of drivers are driving because they could never imagine wanting to do anything else. Not many professions have such dedication with so little rewards and so many sacrifices. On the other hand, if it payed more, every tom dick and harry would be wanting to do it, and there would be no miles for any one. Just a thought.

 

Yeah im right there with ya. Hell, im only 16 lol. I've always wanted to be a trucker since i was probably 4 or 5 yrs old. Been my dream for years. Once i turn 21, im going to school, finding a good company. I've already started researching a lot of companies. Looking into going into flatbeds/dropdecks, things like that.