I've seen oh everyone I'm going to bemaking this video over a period of time and you won't know that really but I'll
know it so I'm telling you I'm transparent like that in 25 years here
the end of January since I've been on on the road you know over the road
OTR I've had my CDL a few years longer I'll start you out with that story I was
in from the military and my family we hauled grain and such from the farm to
market and my uncle said hey boy you're gonna need a CDL if we're going to cross
state lines because we lived on a state line he said the state ain't gonna let
us farmers get away with that this not having a commercial license anymore I
think this was like 1988 any 89 I don't remember exactly I didn't know I was on
leave so I said next year this rule is going
to kick in you're gonna have to have license so hell I just went on down to
the picked me up a book and I read it that night next day I went back and took
the test by golly I was a CDL holder who I still I don't hate it because I was in
the military and I have military license for all kinds of equipment as such they
just grandfathered me in no questions asked
more or less then I had a CDL I didn't I. Didn't I said I wasn't gonna be used it
I was going back I was going back off of leaving but a few years later that thing
came in handy so I always knew that one day I was
either going to be dead on the battlefield or driving the truck that's
when I was a little whippersnapper 2073 and 78 I was out here
during the summertime trucking around with my my uncle he owned like 12 trucks
- 14 drugs I don't know how many own I. Know there was a bunch of trashy Oh cab
overs and he was he was like a Rhinestone Cowboy right he had he had
rhinestones in his hat rhinestones up and down up and down his jeans he was
flashy he was a he was a really good guy I liked you too he was a big Shriner but anyway I ran
around with him all the time and I just love coming out here and see him places
yeah I remember when I was like 12 or 13 he got drunk and Gilley's the fleet was
parked out in the parking lot and I they let me come in and and drag him out I
gave me a cup of Cola there were some boobs and gillies let me tell you now so
I slept in that parking lot quite a few times with my uncle goes we had kids
down in that area but after I got out of the military and
decided well there ain't no jobs for a working man because I did take a couple
of tests for the police department state to me that they didn't call me back to
put me to work until like six months after I took the test and I told him
Bobby and I've done by the truck so their money cooked excite me right but I
hit the road then a couple of weeks driving for an old boy and I realized
that if he was going to treat me bad make me drive a trashy truck
hell I just get my own I'd already kind of ordered one anyway but he didn't know
that I got my own treasure truck no no no
heater no air-conditioning came with a box of candles to keep warm I had me a
Dalmatian dog she snuggled really good boy it was so much different I'm gonna
try to get some pictures to add to this video of the old-timey truck stop that
was out here just let me tell you and I. Mean you could ask shadow wolf but he
knows I've eaten in truck stops that was nothing but a ramshackle down house I
mean for real clapboard house was slanty floors and
and parking outside for 20 trucks and the best food in the world because some
some old lady was up in there cooking food for you I've been in truck stops
for showers with green walls and it wasn't pain it was mold
there I don't even remember back in them days there being t a truck stops there
was Union 76 truck stops there might have been some TAS I just don't remember
I know the TAS bought up the Union 76 is like in Franklin Tennessee that style of
building that that was a union 76 there was flying J's they were few and far
between him and nobody wanted to use flying J because flying J had cheated
everybody and got hittin the lawsuit cuz they they heated up their fuel in the
they say there's they're still cheating everybody again 25 years later they're
still in trouble which I find strange being a youth talk based company but
anyway they was heating up their fuel so it fuel expands when it gets hard and so
you get less actual fuel in your tank and the government regulates the
temperature that it's allowed to be pumped at so it's a fair playing field
for everybody Flying J different play that game but anyway I kind of a diagram
stick we're talking about the old truck stops like the one we stayed at West
Virginia that night and they always had good food and you
know all kinds of different stuff but in a way it's a lot better the uniformity
of today's truck stop that but they're you know they're they're not they're
back in the day there was more mom and pops everywhere and the food was a lot
better but they was called upon a choking a
puke for a reason because a choke in a few yeah you go we're gonna go over to
the choking Buchan we're gonna scrub right because you can get the ceremonial
or something occasionally but these things happen she don't know
what a choke and puke is ain't she cute that was what a portable parking lot is
I taught her what that was skateboard chicken coop I'm not a pig P and I'm Big Daddy yes it
should be a big P and I agree but they might get offended and the trucks the trucks that have
changed out here oh my god they have changed but in the changing if you think
about it when I started truck driving company drivers made 25 cents you make
25 cents a mile that's not a lot of money and sometime along that way
company driver money kind of stagnated but it stagnated because company drift
they started buying company drivers new trucks because back then everybody drop
old trashy trucks but that was when the leasing industry was first coming into
play and it really wasn't for the driver on his amenities it was just because
they was getting to getting a trade off by getting these trucks and leasing them
out and still getting their Freight moved because there there's no liability
in the place of time please you're paying for the truck right
so it's a good deal for them but it didn't hurt driver pay when that came
along that's just my opinion you drugged ice up in that sucker and
you put ice in the reefer I mean you still set the reefer but you had the ice
a lot of your flow to your produce like lettuce and stuff
it wasn't easy like it is now back then that means I guess in 20 years
it'll be even easier than it is now I.
Plan on being here to find out so don't
get excited think you've got peel me off all right I'm gonna I'm going to
traverse 100 years of trucking with you guys because I'm gonna live forever like
shadow wolf shadow wolves 243 years old I'm pretty sure he is he's out actually
shadow wolf looks exactly like my my own deceased uncle you know ever know all right but 25 years ago there are so
many more interstates than there used to be back in them days and you would think
oh look the early 90s everything oh it's modern history but it is but still such
that they've changed so much so many new highways better equipment being back
then we we just had no clue what was going to happen I mean I remember when I
got when I first came out here day one I. Went to the pawn shop and bought me a a
CB radio it was so old and still had tubes in it right and it was it was a it
was it was just an old piece of junk I still got it somewhere in the house I
also got a great big kicking ranger that I could talk to China with if I want to
but it worked right I could get out here and
talk trash I could say shut up stupid like everybody else and like I said when
I got that CDL I didn't go to no school or anything right they just
grandfathered me in there wasn't no YouTube teachers back then there wasn't
no one to turn to and I was pulling a flatbed right I don't I don't talk to
people I don't I don't talk I don't ask people questions I don't say have you
seen your how do you do that I just watched people write I watched
people and learned how to tie down my load from day one I watched people and
to see how they did things I would try to watch the older guys hoping that they
were older and experienced and you can usually tell because even in the 90s the
old guys will steal the old guys because they look you know you just look at them
and tell their wore out so I followed them old guys yeah I'm an old guy and
I'm good no rhinestones though I know I don't I don't look so much like
an old guy I got lucky in that position you know like they say black don't crack Oh so anyway it was this simple I went out
and bought a truck right just without my truck
and I never thought cuz I didn't know about truck driving
school didn't know anything about it so I bring my truck home that I had to
learn how to drive on the way home and I. Start calling carriers and I'm like hey
can you tell me the process they're about leasing on with your company and
when I would answer their questions they'd be like what do you mean you
haven't been to school so school did exist at that time that'd be like a bus
school and I'm called five probably five or six different flatbed carriers and
they was like geez fella you better go haul some whore and I'm like well I've
been hauling corn but it wasn't over the road by mistake no my guys it's my own
truck well persistence will paid off I. Called up an old boy and he was running
trucks for economy leasing and great white or somebody I forgot the other for
the other company something Noah's cam cam Alma they're still around I forget
but anyway he said sure bring it over here
Leisha flatbed to go with that thing and I put you to work
and I did I went over there least on with that guy he didn't care he said can
you driving at him I said yeah they're all using military okay you only
five and I did I never looked back it was that simple
can you grab a truck yep I can drive a truck then drive truck and if he didn't have no Freight I like
and I don't even know if you can still do this or not
I just dig somebody else aside signs on the side of my truck not and I Drive
everywhere back then fuel was so cheap that the
fuel surcharge actually wasn't paying anything but then sometimes during the
clinton years it went over $1 and fuel started paying again at the fuel
surcharge I found out that oh boy was stealing all of our money so we had to
quit he kind of put him out of business when we quit him because all 12 of us
quit at the same time shouldn't be stealing a mansur fuel
surcharge even if it is only for seeing something on the gallon or what for
cents on the mouth it ain't very much much my money so and here's how simple it was steel I
needed the trailer now right I went out to Farmer Brown who had a trailer set in
his field since 1954 and I said hey brother can you sell me that trailer and
he said sure you got five hundred dollars the next day I had a trailer it
had bias-ply tires do you know what bias-ply tires are they have tubes in
them that's what they have and Dayton wheels when a date and wheel flies apart
it will cut you in two so I took that truck and that trailer
and my set of Tripoli signs and I ran all over the country my first
trip with that trailer I blew forth no I believe eight tires on
the way to LA and eight tires on the way back I didn't have bias ply tires
anymore I had radios after that that was a good thing to have was the last two
tires I drove all the way from New Mexico back to Kentucky with flats
because we were outlaws back then but when you got the ad you're not
really an outlaw because you can't sleep anyway all you do is drive have to stop
and sleep if you have a DD it's like torture and punishment because you can't sleep it's sad another thing that I really miss about
old-time trucking is when you rolled up at the shipper gratuities worked if you was heartily
and they and they wasn't gonna take you or they with my appointment times a $20
bill would always get you unloaded now people are so ignorant they don't want
that $20 bill I don't understand it and saying hey baby how you doing - the girl
behind the counter would get you some cheaper food and a discount and unloaded
flirt and went a long way back in the day matter of fact I probably made a
couple extra hundred thousand dollars being sweet to the people to the girls
that I did and I brokered loads from and stuff you know I'd be sweet to them and
they'd give me some good loads okay nobody tell me sex don't pay he does
even if you just you know using sex appeal and being sweet I think we should
go back to trying that drivers yes all right back to them showers you
couldn't always fire truck stop right sometimes in a good rainstorm you'd have
to get out of your truck with your bar of soap and shower in the rain it's been
done a whole lot of times by a whole lot of drivers so let me tell you it's all
natural out there in the rain and crazy stuff could happen back in
them days so I'm running around the country of my 32 fluid trailer breaking
all the bridge laws in the world but I.
Didn't know anything about bridge laws
right I was down in Texas and Hartford a load of lumber and I was folding up my
tarp tray and I don't know what happened but it was like I was having an allergic
reaction all of a sudden I was burning burning all over and I don't know how it
happened but the next thing I found I. Was naked naked standing there beside my
truck and all of a sudden I heard God speak to me from the direction of the
building where I just got my bill son it was the lady inside she said there's a
water hose over by the edge of the building drunk driver
she didn't even sound sound surprised that I was naked standing out in the
parking lot I had done got fire ants all over me and when I lifted up them tarps
and stuff to carry them the fire ants fell down in my clothes and I guess I
it's kind of like that a large reaction when they bite me I don't know I maybe
it's everybody I don't know cuz I am allergic to bees and stuff but she
didn't even sound excited which is kind of strange because I was like a big
strapping strong feller back then right hold it all swelled up weight lifted
maybe she was the last week I don't know it might be you know a lot
I was buck naked and talking lot I think she had saw so many guys buck naked in
the parking lot they got eaten by they on firings day they just didn't faze her
anymore she was like oh look it's another day and another naked man you
don't usually get that kind of stuff anymore
we still have fire ants but now we got gravel
used to everything was a dirt parking lot you would fuck like the what the
truck stop dead star Lord was that the other night where
they had them big house that a person could disappear in they used to be a lot
of that back in the day some of them see rst lots are still that way the driver
beware over there so we should talk about lot lizards too
and I'm going to give you my feelings on lot lizards all right if you're just a
light II want you to make a buck I'm not going to consider that human trafficking
I'm gonna consider that a choice I know you're not gonna hear anyone else say
that I hear all this stuff about human trafficking I've never met a lot lizard
that was human trafficking where they bring her in from El Salvador and pimp
her out I meet the housewife that just want to make some extra money don't
they're getting they're getting the check or whatever they don't want to go
to work so they know that they can do some lot lizard work right and make a
free income they don't have to report that's the truth of the matter people
all right back in the day there was a lot lizards everywhere right now I
didn't mess up that log lizard today anything I can say an idea I'm just
saying they were very entertaining very entertaining if your back was hurt and
you need to get a massage you could employ a lot lizard to rub your back we
didn't have to have sex with olive all right if you need in your truck Lane $20
will get your truck Lane and they spruced up the truck clean it
they they even do it topless if you so desired that's just the way things was
back in the day Ontario had some of the best lot lizards I swear them girls was
not even on drugs they was just actress that's working on the side you know
we're all pimping ourselves out out here that's all I'd like to say about light
lizards well yeah should talk about that other
one she was horrible that was what he was on the top that the
members have one lizard who's on drugs and she baked the paint off my door it
was a terrible experience I had to be mean to her how always give them a cigarette send
them on their merry way another big change out here is back in
the day our logbook our hours of service was different
you can run five and five and five and five or if you wanted to all day it
wasn't 100% okay but nobody would ever give you any trouble about it because so
many drivers would work for five hours or sleep for five hours you know you hit
a big city you go to bed for five hours missed all that traffic and get up and
do it again you didn't you can still run out of hours but you didn't have to yep and when they change that hours of
service it just broke my heart because this this newer one is dangerous to the
truck driver but it's dangerous but here's what I
don't understand his things are much safer now on the road the motoring
public is much safer than they was 25 years ago I don't know what it is I've yeah maybe
it's cuz grandmas arm was a car seat but I mean all the years you've been with me
we ain't pulled no bodies out of no cars we ain't have no dead no babies when
they died but back back in the day wrecks were so much more common and yay
for the first responder but let me tell you the truck driver on the road is the
first responder if a cop is in trouble we're going to belly mouth if somebody's
on fire we're going to help them out or we used to and that's something that
changed too used to we would stop and we would change that girl's tire or we
would throw a chain on her axle and drag her up to the off ramps and and work on
a car for we see them old people out here we stop and we take them to the gas
station to fix them we fix everybody that little truck driver on the side of
the road we stop and make him a sandwich and sit with him till the tow truck come
now where all that changed if these big mega carriers came in and they made
rules they made rules for everything you know like parking on the side of the
road or or moving over in traffic saying you know if you have to move to the left
lane you know how all these guys now you'll be hammered down at 65 or 70
and you won't see that focus up there on the side of the road 20 feet off the
road and CRSP will just jump over in front of you all of a sudden that's
because they have rules that that's what they have to do they don't care if if
you end up in an accident because of that because you're behind them so their
company does does not care about you you're in a position of liability if
you're behind them but that's what changed all that stuff they said that
those drivers could not stop and help anyone to save their soul so these
things spread across the industry because when you leave these big mega
carriers and these leasing perfect carriers and you're a new driver and
they told you all of these lies and they call them laws or rules or whatever you
you people don't listen right then they bring those positions out here into the
rest of the truck-driving world and then they share that stuff as God's
honest truth because that's why they were too hard I really think that's what's been the
downfall of the trucking industry in my lifetime is the mega carriers and I work
for three and you know I like Cree Cree don't have a bunch of stupid rules
though they're not like that but the the big training companies is the ones that
did it another thing that changed it is when
when I first got into trucking like I. Said we didn't have a CDL and we hauled
corn and beans and week to market right this is before like my uncle's right
they would farm all summer and then they would truck all winter and that that's
that's what ran this country was farmers in a way and now farmers don't do that
anymore they stay at home all winter and they don't try because trucking became
too much trouble just too much trouble with all the changing rules and
everything now back in them days DDOT. Compliance was totally different than it
is now because even though we had the do team and all of these programs and rules
and laws each state still did their own thing which quit which was scary in a
way because what was illegal in one state may not be illegal in another or
what rule they were enforcing from one day I mean some states are still kind of
like that with their bridge laws you know they're not all the same and with
their link from from kingpin to to trailer axle
and you know Wisconsin is bad about pulling in drivers but I've heard anyway
no look we drinking coffee you must be a tired driver you're down for the night
you know crazy stuff like that back in the day that was much worse I feel like
I'm sinking over here not losing air pressure am i sinking guys another thing all the years I've been on
the road I could sleep in Compton I can sleep in downtown New York City the
Bronx Brooklyn what's Queens I never felt fear or in danger of course I was
always gets trapped but that didn't that didn't have nothing to do with it right
because you don't want to be like that I never felt like I was worried though I
get out amongst the people you know being cleans or something right and I'm
gonna and I'm sitting in an alley waiting to deliver a lot of onions I'd
get out and go walking and I never worried about nobody robbing me or
jumping me or anything I don't know why I mean maybe cuz there's you know I'm
confident but nowadays that's changed too in a lot of ways now when you're in
some places you do get a little worried that you may not be safe because there's
so many crazies on the on the road you gotta worry about Crazy's matter of
fact there's some crazy truck drivers out here too but they was out here back
then I believe also they need a job too oh my god yes I I used to pick up
hitchhikers back in the day right I.
Picked up some hippies in New Orleans if
they were actually she was cute but they smelt like pot so heavily they would hey
was going to one of them concerts I think they had been to what is it
Woodstock Woodstock like I'm that old come on out girl
anyway yes I drove on dirt roads backwards but no monkey been to Mardi
Gras and they was going back out to Vegas or somewhere and I carry the most
most of the way they would stay was a trip like to get tarred stuff along the
way yeah I picked up that one some truck driver rolled up beside me and he had a
little hottie in his truck right and he was like I'm not going any further and
he asked where I'm going I told him I. Was going Laredo he said this girl needs
to go to San Antonio you want to drop her off and I said well I'm not leaving
til tomorrow and she was like well I don't care I'll
sit in the driver's seat and I would never believe in in coming on to a woman
unless she you know says hey baby you want some of this stuff I just don't I
ain't got time for that stealing this and I didn't have time for it back then
so she set up in the driver's seat all night and I realized every time I woke
up that there was some kind of issue with this woman because she was writing
and writing so intently that I knew something was wrong with her
and the next morning I got her some butter some food and we hit it out
and she's sitting over there and she keeps she started Swiss purring and
talking and saying I know what you did I'm gonna tell on you I know what you
did and I was like oh my god I have got a grazie person here a bona fide crazy
person and I was like look lady I don't know what your problem is but that's how people disappear in this
world I said you need to shut up or you're not
gonna make it to San Antonio so anyway she she told me she didn't living it in
San Antonio she lived near that right I. Got off on the exit ramp
I was country road went down it and she pointed at a driveway going back in the
middle of nowhere so I can't get my truck down there and even if I could I
wouldn't go out there in the middle of nowhere don't pick up hitchhikers people
it's not a good plan but I'm just saying this is back in the day all right so she
tells me if I don't take her down that drive that she's gonna call the police
they didn't have the word Popo back then I don't believe she's going to call the
police on me and have me arrested because she's seen what I did so I said
all right I have to do that I put that 13 speed in the wind and hand it to the
road oh and when I got to Laredo to the outskirts to the right I like 30 miles
out I'm drugged that wind shot the truck and threw her down in the ditch and
telling her to stay there and then you walk to her right now it
was wintertime she wasn't going to burn up and I'm sure she found another ride
but I learned my lesson there the time before that I picked up a girl in a
miniskirt with boots up to her thighs and a tube top that was striping in the wintertime but the suitcase up in
Syracuse New York now I didn't know about the titty bar in Syracuse New York
back in the day if you get a chance to go to that titty bar you should but I
believe that mixing boobs and alcohol is never a good plan
so go sober or don't go but anyway I. Picked this chick up up here and let me
tell you she was smoking hard right I.
Was like oh my goodness what's this girl
hitchhiking for and she was good conversation no problem I carried that
girl halfway across the country she was a she was nice we get to where I'm going she says can I
use your radio I said sure she got up on that radio started selling
fresh the company I couldn't believe it she hadn't been in the truck a thousand
miles your conversation I'm a young man though she didn't even offer me the
goods of her trade and now I don't got time for the goods for the trade right
and I'm like you think I might not have been
interested in some of that she said no she said you look too much
like a family man I guess that was compliment but it kind
of felt funny I wasn't it took him but she could have
offered it just say it everybody wants to feel needed wanted out here
especially back in the old days and the reason they gave us the CDL is
because the end truck drivers would go get it they would go get a DUI in one
state like a friend of mine got a DUI in October in his big truck all right back
in the day they just go to the next state can get another CDL I'm sorry a
driver's license because you you could carry multiple driver's license from
different states and I guess that kind of could have been a big deal as far as
breaking the law working the law breaking the law you know I'm Sam so in recap 25 years on the road I've
seen change I've seen good change in bad change done it all singing it off and forgot
more than I'll probably ever learn again and the things that I've seen with my
eyes can be scary and amazing I'm sorry this
video ran so long but to condense 25 years into 40 minutes is kind of a
travesty of justice I hope you have 25 years on the road you
can take that as a blessing or curse it can go either way
carry on.
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