The ROAD is LONG

Is it just me, thinking about the blue lights behind the truck as he gets hassled for taking his break beside the road?

...not into poetry much but that makes a nice daydream about night things. (the one without the dang cop)

 

I once knew a lady that could do anything, she never had a house fancy clothes or a diamond ring..

She wore Blue jeans and boots and always a hat.. She even had a chain drive wallett, she was comfortable like that...

She could Rebuild an engine or a carburetor even a starter and an alternator.. She could operate Equipment, any thing from Skidders to Dozers, Swathers and Hay Bailers she could fall a tree, Homelite was her favorite saw..

She could patch my pants, make supper out of almost nothing, Yeah this lady was really something! She didnt have an easy life, she would seldom fuss, the nicest house she ever had was an old beat up School Bus!

In 1996, I was sitting beside her on her bed, She was dying from cancer she had no hair upon her head.. Just before She went to heaven she turned to me and said,I love you Son, I love you too Mom and i kissed her on her head...

My Mom, Nov 8 1943 to april 25 1996

 

my family was homeless 20 years, when us Kids were old enough to leave Mom and dad kept on tramping around the country, I was second to the youngest but stayed the longest, dad needed my help. if he were alive today he would be 87, im 37,

 

LIFE ON THE ROAD, TRULY IS A VERY LONELY ONE. My father was a lifelong trucker.In the early days, when I was very young, he and his friend drove sleeper for the Convoy company (motor carriers) which transported new cars all over the US. It was pretty good wages, but very tiresome. I did not know until he died how bad it was for him. My mother let me read a stack of letters he wrote her while he was gone. It was all about how much he loved and missed her, their doggies and me his daughter. Heck, he would start out in Portland,Ore and end up in Detroit or New York and at times, days turned into weeks and weeks became months. One day dad came back into town, and came home. He opened the door and walked in, I saw him and I went a hid. I was terrified of this stranger!! Dad tried everything to get me to come to him, but I would scream. Finally, my dad said, "The day my daughter doesn't even recognize me, her daddy, then its time for me to quit!!" so he went to the phone, called his boss and quit. He couldn't take anymore loneliness and isolation.

 

Ok, short version... my family left Minnesota in march of 1980, we came to Montana, we lived in the woods.. my dad got a logging Job, there was still alot of snow in the little belt mountains so we had to move into town, White Sulphur Springs.. rented a little house, then moved to Reed Point Montana, we stayed out by the yellowstone river in a camper the same one we stayed in when we first got to montana, it was 16 feet long,there was five of us.. Dad was trying to log in reed point also, then we moved to Springdale Montana, rented a house there for a couple months.. now it was november 1980.. Mom and Dad rented a u-haul for one days use and we Left Montana with the U-haul, headed for yuma arizona, after the hard trip from Montana to yuma AZ, my family got a job picking Lemons, Then it was all History, we traveled picking fruit and bumming all over the U.S. I say bumming becouse many many times that is how we made it from place to place, Mom would take me And My little sister into churches in any little town or city, she would say, we are from montana and traveling trying to find work and a place to stay, do you have any work we can do or any way to help us?? Never did a church turn us away!! Some times only 10 dollars for gas but always something.. we stopped in marfa texas trying to get help, by this time my oldest sister had a baby, she was 17.. me and my other two sisters were riding in the trunk of our old buick electra, Mom and dad were inside and also our oldest sister and her baby, and another Homeless couple we met in Mission texas.. The Sheriff In marfa Told my parents to Leave Marfa Texas And never come back.. he gave us some gas and a food Voucher at the Grocery store.. we hardly ever went to school, i had a sixty percent hearing loss in both ears..

Nickle Diming food stamps was common for us kids, if you Know what nickle Diming means.. My parents would give us each a dollar food stamp, we would buy a 5 or 10 cent piece of candy and bring them the change.. I dont care if I ever see a food stamp again!! after a few years of this, my parents started trying to be swapmeet vendors selling mostly junk... so from 1980 to 1992 we lived in a car, maybe an old school bus when we were lucky.. slept on picnic tables on the ground etc... we had scabies head lice etc... ate from the trash once in a while, but mostly ate comoddities government cheese or what ever the food banks gave out... poached a deer when we would make it back to montana.. in 1991 i met a 16 year old homeless girl at a homeless camp in the imperial valley of southern california,called Slab City.. a few months later she and I ran away, my parents new we were, and where we were going.. alot went on after that, but in a few months we were with my parents we all made it to montana and were living and working in the woods.. in march of 1993 I got a job custom harvesting, traveling driving truck and harvesting all over the country.. did this and worked on a road crew as a truck driver untill february of 2000, I wanted to move to minnesota.. My lifelong dream was to get back Home to Minnesota and Make My home there have a small farm and be a long haul trucker and build a small trucking company...

My dad always detered me for some reason and i always listened to him, he would say Minnesota is no ****tin good.. so i never went!! when the trucking company I worked for paving roads went out of business, i was working in arizona,I told dad i wanted to go to minnesota.. he said go to montana my sisters Lived there, so i listened.. Dad was still tramping around, He lived in an old van.. mom had passed in 1996, we went to montana bought an old trailer house in townsend, I got a job driving.. our trailer house burned down two weeks later.. that trailer was the first house, if you want to call it a house. 8x40, it was the first house I lived in since 1980, 20 years.. And the 16 year old homeless girl I ran away with in 1991, we had a son he was four.. dad died in 2003, My wife and i have been married 18 years now, our son is 16, we adopted twin baby girls they are four now.. I was under the influienc of my dad for so long, always felt so guilty if I was not there if he needed me, even though he was not a great dad, I always felt guilty if I didnt do what he wanted.. he was 50 when I was born and twenty years older than mom.. mom passed in 1996 she was 53, dad passed in 2003 he was 80 and still living in a 77 dodge van., would be 87 now and im 37, I still want to Live in Minnesota and am determined to do it.. after years of building up our credit,, while trying to pay for funerals, I made sure my parents were together, In White Sulphur Springs Mt..Dad and I had the same name, and over the years alot of dads debts and U-haul trailers and medical bills, caught up with me, and with everything we had to file for bankruptcy in 2008.. that put my minnesota dream on hold.. we are determined to do it..

I have done well I think, I drove over one million Miles in a semi without an accident..
have a house in Montana..
Have a wonderfull 16 year old son..
adopted twin baby girls..
have completed two multi million dollar projects in a platinum mine in Montana, i was the lead man on an underground railroad project and an underground road paving project...
made sure my parents were laid to rest together.
but most of all been with my wife, the 16 year old homeless girl for almost 20 years..
We are still determined to live in Minnesota, and im never giving up on My own Trucking Company... thats my Short long story.. I have been working on writing two books since 1996 but get Discouraged or upset and throw them away.. im trying it again now... Thank you...

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And yet,kinda makes me sad...Cant find the cryin face,######...Oh well,I"ll use this one pretend there are tears

 

when I was 18 years old i was homeless.. My family and i were living in a homeless camp in southern california, "Slab City".. I met this old man named William, he was retired but just lived off of social security.. william lived in an old 1964 international school bus... he was very sick and couldnt drive or even walk.. his legs were so swollen he couldnt wear socks and in my memory i thought they were going to burst.. William offered me 100 dollars to drive his bus and take him from Slab City, near El Centro Ca, to Yuba City Ca.. He agreed to buy me a Greyhound Bus ticket back south.. So William and I left Slab City, i was driving the old international Bus, towing on a tow bar a 1961 Chevrolet pickup..William and his dog layed in Williams bed.. My first problem was the old Chevy truck would not follow around corners, when we would go around a corner I would have to stop in the highway, Jump out of the Bus and run back to the pickup and straighten out the front wheels.. late that evening I was pulling up the pass into Yucca Valley California, it was raining and the lights of the bus were getting DIM, the alternator of the Bus went out.. William had no money to replace the alternator. it was a leece neville Alternator and was very expensive.. So I got some 10 guage wire and ran wires from the old Chevrolet Pickup to the batteries on the bus and started the pickup to keep the Bus batteries charged... early the next morning we were going through Apple Valley California when the bus became very loud, the exhaust pipe was very rusty and broke off near the exhaust manifold, We had no way to repair this, so we drove.. by noon we were at kramer junction (four corners) i was making the left turn to go towards Mojave and Bakersfield when the power steering went out, it had power assist, and blew The hose going down to the Cylinder on the axle..Before we left William had four tires put on the back of the bus, they were old Military style tires, they had good tread but were very rotten.. We went over tehachapi and got on Highway 99 at bakersfield.By the time we got to livingston california we had blown every tire on the rear of the bus. the two on the left rear at different times, but the two on the right within seconds of each other, it had the old dayton wheels, each time a tire blew out we would unhook the old pickup and go tire hunting.. we made the trip with no power steering, no alternator, no exhaust and only had two tires on the rear when i got William to his family In yuba City.. I still made the 900 mile trip in less than two days.. and got on the Greyhound back to El centro to make my way back out to the camp where my parents were... William passed away a few Weeks later, This was in january of 1991...

 

I just read your article and tears flowed down my cheeks. It was such a sacrifice for you to do that for him, but so caring and unselfish. Bless you. I was imagining the whole thing in my mind. He was lost, away from home and sick and holding on. You gave him peace and safety. He could finally allow himself to die, because he was home. This is a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it with me.
Blessings, Bradsmom60

 

Hey Bumpyi49, Why so cynical? In this cruel and unjust world in which we live, it sure does my heart good to hear other stories from others whose have had it rough in their lives like I have. Please dont discourage anyone when they need to tell someone else about their trials, shortcomings or their victories. Its all apart of healing and its a good thing getting it off our chests.
Take care, and have a safe one. OK? Bradsmom60

 

Well Bless her heart, she sounds like she was an awesome mom. It was great to know that you were there with her and she got to tell you she loved you before she went "home to God"
I hope you feel very proud of yourself for being such a good and loving son. I am sure she was/is very proud of you.
Take care, and keep the wind at your back,
Happy Trails, Bradsmom60