Good Old Days

Lets face it, everyone is talking about how bad trucking has become today. All the hype about fuel costs, driver shortage, etc. Frankly I'm very tired of it and intend to turn my blogging to an old direction. So this will be the first of many.

Why I became a trucker

Years ago, as a youngster on a rural Wisconsin farm, I always admired the big trucks as any boy would. Big rigs back then where mostly day cab single drive axle trucks with pull trailers. Names like Brockway, Sterling, Mack, Peterbilt, GMC where the big trucks. Engines where for the most part gasoline such as Hall-Scott, Buda and so on. Diesel was used in Europe but slow to catch on in the US.
Back to why I became a trucker. After one room primary school and a small high school education, I enrolled in the University of Wisconsin. After a couple of semesters the Korean conflict (we were not allowed to call it a war) interupted my education and I served in the Air Force for six years. After that I ended up in the great state of Idaho.
The Air Force education in mechanics and flight engineering made me into a mechanic and turned my life to heavy equipment. Wages in those days, in Idaho, were around $1.80 per hour. With a family to support, I found trucking to be a way to make a good living because incentive pay per mile driven added up. So on to a new career.