Someone once told me truckers spend most of their life polishing an over sized belt buckle while crying over Red Sovine’s "Teddy Bear" song 4-5 times daily. Giddy Up Go…Giddy Up Go…
A feature of the life:
Dunlop’s Disease (my belly done lopped over my belt).
Giddy-up, Go hits all the important marks. How hard it is to become good (since you ALWAYS lose money while so doing); the sacrifice of family; and the unexpected impression you made nonetheless.
It’s one thing to read a description of the work, it’s quite another to have to do it. I call it, The Ten Thousand Details, as only experience being gained brings them up as questions.
The day doesn’t have an end. All the things civilians can separate from their work life help as a barrier to being overwhelmed.
My favorite of these pop songs is Dave Dudley’s,
Six Days on the Road, because I know how hard it is to put together a good week like that.
And THEN a top finish.
But you have to start every week that way. And accept yesterday’s setbacks as not affecting today’s possibilities.
There’s talking it. And there’s doing it. No choice in this line of work.
Due to that the best drivers you get to meet have a quality of equanimity rarely found outside of trucking. As no man is exempted. The job, the conditions, the difficulties.
So when this job is good, it can really be good. Is the flip side.
The CB Radio is part of all of it. Bad to worst. Best to just okay.
Without question some of the funniest things I’ve heard in this lifetime came across that speaker.
Strong feelings come & go quickly. They aren’t events. Diary entries.
Not if you expect to get under that next load.
So the sentiment — real or contrived — is quick to act upon a driver. Can’t ignore feelings. They’re real and they’re present. They don’t deserve special treatment.
By the time you see him at 1430, he’s already been up more than 13-hours and covered over 500-miles. He’s already ridden the emotional roller coaster.
.
