Bubbas granddaughter posted this on the game forums!!!
The life and times of grandpa (bubba smith) in his own words taken from his diary. I will be updating daily I hope but there sure is a big diary.
I can't copy and paste out of a diary so all sayings will be quotes from the diary unless I jump in to say something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nov 27 '53 and straight out of the Army after 3 years. I didn't make a diary of my Korea experience because I was just lucky to stay alive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom made Thanksgiving dinner with a turkey from granny and granps farm. Sure was delicious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Got a date tonight with a gourgeos redhead from New Castle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nov 30 '53 Been on a 3 day drunk and sober enough now to find a job
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 4 '53 found a job here in town driving a straight truck for a hay dealer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 7 '53 got 200 bales of alfalfa hay to unload at Indianapolis stockyards. it is 4 am and i have to be there by 5. better get my ass in gear because that '50 chevy don't have a 2 speed in it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
met a guy at the stockyards driving a semi loaded with 500 bales. asked me if i ever drove a semi and i lied and said yes. he said there was an opening with his boss and i should call.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 8 '53 called the man about the job and he said he would put me to work if i could be there by thrusday morning of the 10th and i said i would be there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 10 '53 i arrived at Arlington Park Illinois at 5am and was waiting on the company John Henricks Hay and Straw to open up. they have a contract to haul hay to the race track and the drivers pick the hay up in wisconsin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7am and the boss introduced himself to me and said for me to get into unit #13 which was a brand new corn binder of single axle and 2 speed rear end. he said to follow his buyer to Sheboygan and he would help me load 500 bales of bromme hay to bring back to the headquarters. I got in that binder and didnt know shit abut the gears. my buyer had already left and it was snowing ass deep to a donkey cart and i hadnt even moved yet. so i put it in a gear and released the clutch real slow and thank god i had it in second so the boss must have thought i knew what i was doing and waved good bye. i didnt see the buyer anywhare and i trucked along afraid to try to shift gears because it was slick on the road. about 2 miles away from headquarters i hit a slick patch of ice and i was going everywhere but on the road. finally i ended up in the ditch. the buyer tracked back and found me in the ditch and we left the unit there until it clears up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 11 '53 boss had the binder pulled out of ditch an pulled to the dealer to make sure all was ok. he told me the night before i could pick it up at 7am and the hay buyer would meet me there so we could go to sheboygan to pick up the hay. i went to the dealer at 5am to see if i could learn anything about the binder. i had keys to it so i got in it and found the dealers book. that thing had all shift patterns in it so i spent the next 2 hours going through the gears and 2 speed until i was sure i had it down. in the next 131 miles i was a real truck driver now. the hay buyer left me at the farmers and we loaded the bromme hay. i left the farmers and made it back down route 57 to west allis where a couple other company drivers had stopped at a diner. we left the diner and i was lead pack of 3 trucks and i was crusing along at 45 mile hour. we were all driving new R-195 with a 24,000 lbs GVW, and a Red Diamond 406 engine, 14 inch clutch, direct drive five speed transmission, and Eaton single reduction rear axle with a top speed of 55 miles hour. very few of these cab over trucks were on the market yet but the boss owned the local dealership so he had first divies on them. he was running 3 of them and he had 3 '53 R165s that he shuttled local hay with. it was just turning dusk when i was coming to caledonia wisconsin when all of a sudden boom whap bang and my truck came to a dead stop. i left it in gear and turned off the motor and stepped out and what a damn mess i had strewn behind me. one of the other drivers came up and told me that i was supposed to lay the top tier flat baled instead of side baled because it would make you over 13 ft high and that damn bridge that stopped me was 13 foot.damn buyer should told me this since this was my first job with them. we all managed to get most of the bales back on the trailer and roped down and headed on to the garage. it was now well past 9pm and my ass was dragging on my first day of the job. good thing those bales only weighed 40 pounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 12 '53 boss called the rooming house where i stay and told the lady he would like to see me at 7am if i was there. something important he said so since he is paying my rooming house bill and giving me a hundred bucks wage a week i have to go see him. good wages and a place to stay are hard to find right now. i did have a good looking gal that i wanted to see this saturday but that can wait. i walked over to the hay garage at 7am. it is only about 1500 feet from the rooming house. in front of the hay garage sat a brand new 1953 two story red international. the nameplate said it was a International RDTC-405. i saw it yesterday at the dealership. i walked into the hay garage and the boss met me. he did not have a office in the hay garage and just hanged around when he did not have business somewhere else. he reached in his pocket and brought out a lot of money and peeled off a fresh twenty and handed it to me. that was my pay for the 1 day of work. sure is good pay but hard work too. he said he paid every thing in cash so i would not have a payroll check. he said that the new truck out front was for me to drive because he was going to use me on some long distance runs and it would be more comfortable. he then took me out back where a brand new trailer sat. his special made trailers are sunk down in the middle and the metal goes up 4 feet around the sides. they are made to hold excatly 500 bales of the small size if you load it right. he asked me if i would like to make a trip to burnside kentucky monday morning. i said shit yes because i had never been very far from home except my military time. he said it was about 500 miles and that he would have the trailer loaded now if i wanted to leave and i could spend a couple days with mom and dad on the way if i wanted too. i told him that that would be ok with me. he said to be back in 2 hours and he would have everything ready for my trip. i went back to the rooming house and got in the bathtub and picked up some clothes and returned in 2 hours and there sat the new binder,that is what they call internationals.the new trailer was loaded with straw bales and rope tied down. the boss handed me 600 dollars to make the trip. damn i could have a good drunk on that kind of money but i won't. he said there was a new jack and lug wrench along with 2 new tubes in the truck in case i had a flat. how in the hell am i going to fix a flat. i don't know a shittin thing about it. i pulled into mom and dads at noon and i will stay here until monday morning for the trip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 13 '53 didn't do much today except help dad work on his '50 dodge pick up. damn thing threw a bearing and we took the pan down and filed the babbit down until we got a tight fit. put it back together and it never made a knock. went to see my girlfriend this evening and she is already wanting to get married since i have a good paying job. think i will wait awhile on the marriage thing. came back home and penned this in my diary. long trip ahead tomorrow
dec 14 '53 drank a little too much last night. mom had to wake me up at 6am to get me on the road. mom filled me up with biscuits and gravy and i hit the road at 7 am. i sure like this new truck and it even has a bed behind me so if i want i can take a nap. mom made it up real nice with clean sheets and pillow tops and a fresh blanket and a left a couple extra blankets because it is cold out side. nice day to truck. no snow here. when i got to louisville the damn sky opened up with heavy snow. i got lost trying to find us 150 south. i saw a couple trucks parked by a diner so i joined them. i guess they hadn't invented truck stops yet cause i never saw one all the way down here so far. did run across a couple weight stations though. it was noon already so i went in and had some lunch and it started clearing up. i had left the truck running and when i came back out and climbed up in it it was nice and warm. the little heater had done a good job to be so small of a heater. damn kentuckians don't believe in road signs but i found us 150 and took it to danville. i hit a weight station just past danville and had to show them my weigh bills and cleared ok. then i picked up us 27 south to somerset. the boss told me to take the gravel road in the center of town west until i came to a big rise in the road and the farm would be on the left at the top of the hill. good thing the snow had let up or i would drove right by it cause it is set back from the road. it was now 5pm and when i pulled up to the house i thought i was back in the army. 20 damn men came running out of the house and surrounded my truck. i thought to myself that something was damn fishy here. 1 of the men climbed up and told me to shut it off and climb out and he would take it from here. what the hell is so important about this load of baled straw. i still had 200 bucks left and i thought about just running afoot out of there. they had sent 2 of the men back into the house with me and told me that i would be staying the night and they would load me back out with hay for the return trip. i wasn't going to sleep too good tonight.
"You will notice that grandpa never capitalized any thing. us150 meaning US Highway 150."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 15 '53 i tossed and turned all night not knowing what would stare me in the face in the morning. got myself up and around at 6am and went downstairs where i was met by the same 2 men that took me to the house. they said my truck and trailer were ready to go. i d*** sure was ready to go. they gave me instructions that the trailer was loaded with 200 bales of alfalfa large bales and i was to deliver it to a warehouse on south cicero street in chicago. they gave me 600 bucks for expenses to make the trip. it would probably take that and some of my 200 left over because it was all up hill going back and the hay bales weighted more.it still didn't make sense to me that they were so protective with the load of straw but didn't seem to give a d*** about this load of hay. i did notice that there were 2 new tires on the front of my truck and ask them why. they said the others were pretty worn. i knew better because they only had the 500 miles on them from the trip down but i didn't say anything about it. as soon as i turned out of the drive onto the gravel road i felt like the front was steering different. when i got to somerset i stopped and looked under the front end but i didn't see anything wrong there so i just sensed that it was the new tires were making a difference. when i got to the scales at danville they pulled me over to the side after checking my weight bills. the man came out of the scales with a long pointed pole and climbed onto the top of the hay and began poking the pole down through the hay. i asked him why and he told me that they have truckers coming up from the south that are carring moonshine jugs loaded into cavities of the hay. he gave me a clean go through and let me proceed so i guessed i was ok. i got back to mom and dads about 9 pm and they were glad to see me. I decided to stay the night because if i went on to chicago it would be late and i would have to sleep in my truck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 16 '53 me and dad were drinking coffee at 6am and we decided to unload those 200 bales of hay to see if there really was and moonshine hidden that maybe the scaleman may have missed. we unloaded it clear down to the first layer in the trailer belly and found nothing so we reloaded the d*** hay but i felt better that i would not be caught with some moonshine and spend time in prison for carrying it. i left mom and dads at noon because i knew that it would take 3 hours for the 100 mile trip to chicago. i pulled into the cicero street warehouse at about 3pm. i knew where it was because another of the boss drivers had told me how to get there once. they only had 2 guys working and i was told that it would be 2 or 3 hours before it would be unloaded. i decided to try out my new bed in the truck. 1 of the guys woke me up 3 hours later and told me i was ready to go back to the company garage. i got back to the garage about 10pm and locked up my truck and went to the rooming house for a good nights sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"All grandpa did for the next 10 years was haul hay out of Wisconsin and there is nothing of interest in those pages of the diary. He did finally get married a year after he first started working and had a rented house in McHenry Illinois along with 2 sons born in that time. He bought a new Packard Convertible in 1958 and there is a lot of pages of the diary pointing to that and his boys enjoying themselves fishing and other dad/son things."
"I will fast forward to Tuesday, February 5th 1963."
~~~~~~
"I missed a few pages from his 1953 and later years so I will post them next and readers can back up to those years...sorry"
feb 5 '63 after 10 years of hauling hay and straw i found it time to say good bye to henricks hay and straw. i left because the boss got in trouble with the feds. they came to my house and ask me a bunch of questions about moonshine and i told them i didn't know anything about it but one time when i hauled a load of straw to burnside kentucky i felt like something was wrong. i told them everything that happened down and back. they told me he was under investigation for transporting moonshine interstate. they said that the straw was a cover for the moonshine still and the return trip was by using new tubes in the tires and they would put 25 gallon in each tube then air it up so it looked tight. i did not even think about that when my truck was feeling woobly in the front end. he had been doing this for a lot of years by using other truckers. moonshine was selling for like 40 bucks a gallon in chicago but the boss was dispensing it in 16 ounce mickeys for 20 bucks each.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 6 '63 spent all day looking for another job. i met with doctor milt ratner who had just bought midwest transportation and emery freight and started a reefer company called midwest emery transport. the interview went good and i think i will get a job with them. he bought 50 new '62 f model coe macks "Cab over engine"and 100 trailmobile 40 foot reefers. i guess he is lining up a bunch of shippers the way he talked. when i got home from chicago my wife told me that midwest emery had called and wanted me to start driver orientation tomorrow morning at 8am. d*** glad to hear that as i was running out of money. things are looking up for the start of this year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 7 '54 the hay is not good in wisconsin right now so the boss wants to send his 3 road drivers to san francisco california to bring back 1500 bales for the arlington heights race track. the boss bought 2 more International RDTC-405s so we would all travel together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 8 '54 all 3 of us drivers met up at 5am to start our trip west. we had to be there by jan 29 to load the hay. this is going to be one h*** of a trip. he gave us each 1000 cash and when we ran out he would western union us more money. he had us routed leaving arlington heights south to us30 and west to soda springs idaho then south on idaho34 to pick up us40 west to san francisco then route 101 to gilroy then 152 east to the hay dealer. it was about 7am when we reached colo iowa and we all stopped to gas up and eat at hunter truck stop. their dx gas was 29.9 cents a gallon and their breakfast was good. east of clinton iowa we came upon a wreck of a highway trooper who had rolled his car several times and the trooper was dead in the car. we came upon a 12 9 inch height bridge west of ogden nebraska and had to take a bypass around even though we were empty. seem like p.i.e. trucks own route 30. they are coming and going all day. we made it to grand island truck stop in nebraska and it was dark so with this being a 2 lane highway and not knowing it we all turned into out bunks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 9 '54 we trucked hard all day since 7am. we all stopped 3 times to eat and gas up. gas is cheaper here in wyoming at 21.9 cents a gallon. we were to rock springs when we stopped for the night at 9 pm. first truck stop we found in 300 miles. not much of one but at least we could gas up and get a bite to eat. it set out in the middle of nowhere so we pulled way back behind it so we couldn't hear the d**** p.i.e. trucks going by.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 10 '54 started out at 6am after breakfast. they sure did feed good for a buck twenty five. twenty miles west of green river the trailing driver was flashing his lights at me so i pulled off the side of the road and saw that i had a flat tire on the inside dual on the passenger side. would do no good to go back to green river cause there was nothing there that could fix a truck flat. all we could do was fix the flat here so we dug out the jack and lugwrench and took the tire and wheel off the truck. the boss did think about this so he equiped each truck with a jack and lugwrench and two tire tools and two 9 hundred by 20 new tubes. he had also made up a gladhand with a nozzle so you could hook it onto the truck gladhand and air up a tire. all of the trucks had 9hundred by 20 tires mounted on dayton wheels that used split rims. we would have to use the tire tools to remove the lock rim and then we put the tire under the trailer dolly and cranked the dolly down so it broke the tire away from the rim. we put the new tube in and then lifted the tire and wheel up on top of the frame of the truck and slid it back under the nose of the trailer. we did this because if the lock ring broke loose it wouldn't injure anyone. we aired the tire up by hooking the two gladhands together. got it all done and back on the truck in two hours. we were on our way again and about 20 miles outside evanston the eastbound drivers were holding up two fingers in their windshield which meant that the scales were open there. we stopped just before the scales at a small cafe along side the road that had room for our trucks and we ate lunch. we made it through the scales ok and trucked the rest of the day until we made it to soda springs idaho and our cutoff going south to pick up us40. it was about 10 at night so we went to our bunks for some sound sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 11 '54 had breakfast at a little resturant in soda springs and got on route 34 and drove to the junction of us 40 and headed west. we drove all day with a couple gas stops and blowing snow in spots and made it to winnemuca nevada by 8 pm. roadys truck stop has a shower. we all took one as it was the first we could find since leaving. we slept in our trucks after the shower and a good meal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 12 '54 it is 8pm and we can't leave the truck stop because there is a blizzard going through. I have never seen this much d*** snow in my life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 13 '54 there are seven consolidated freight drivers plus us three cramped into this little cafe because the d**** snow won't let up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 14'54 snow has cleared up enough so we can move off this d*** mountain. we all have to gas up cause we had to leave trucks running so they would not freeze up. we headed out at about 10 in the morning and after we got off the mountain the roads cleared up enough to make some good time. we are trying to make to sparks because the considated freight drivers were tell us there is a good little truck stop there called bill and effies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 15 '54 didn't get in to sparks until after midnight so we slept the rest of the night until 7 in the morning. bill and effies is not what i thought it would be. it only had six gas pumps and the cafe only had eight counter stools with three tables also. bill and effie were nice people and they told us the hardest part of our trip was going to be donner pass. kind of scary the way they talked about all the trucks that have been lost there. made it down to the bottom at 5 at night and i will be d*** if we go back home with loaded trailers that way. i was ok until we got to emigrant pass and it was a b**** from there on down. we stopped at rocklin california for the night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 16 '54 we left rocklin at 6 in the morning. a lot more places to buy gas in california but the gas price is high at 36 cents a gallon. sacramento was pretty but san francisco had a lot of hills on us40 but once we got to 101 it leveled out. we pulled into gilroy hay at 6 at nite. D*** this is a big hay dealer. must have a hundred acres of baled hay stacked up. they won't load us till morning. there was no motel at gilroy but there was one at hollister so we came here for the night. good bed and good shower. they both feel good. after 8 days of being in the truck i am going for a good nites sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 17 '54 we all got loaded around noon and i decided that we would go back home by using route 101 south to los angeles and picking up route us 66. i am sure it can't be as bad as that route us40 was going west out of truckee nevada. i will western union the boss for more money as we are getting low now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No excitement on the return trip so I will post his last entry when he reaches Chicago."
jan 22 '54 the judgement call i made on the return route was the right one. better 2 lane road and better weather. 5 days on the return trip even being loaded. the only really bad road was from oatman arizona to kingman arizona and from grants new mexico to tijeras new mexico. good trucking from there until we got around joplin misssouri to springfield missouri. i would not care to make another trip that long with the international RDTC-405.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will pick up where we left off in 1963."
feb 6 '63 spent all day looking for another job. i met with doctor milt ratner who had just bought midwest transportation and emery freight and started a reefer company called midwest emery transport. the interview went good and i think i will get a job with them. he bought 50 new '62 f model coe macks "Cab over engine"and 100 trailmobile 40 foot reefers. i guess he is lining up a bunch of shippers the way he talked. when i got home from chicago my wife told me that midwest emery had called and wanted me to start driver orientation tomorrow morning at 8am. d*** glad to hear that as i was running out of money. things are looking up for the start of this year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 7 '63 went to driver orientation today and it was not much. they just talked about how the company was going to be run and made sure we knew how to operate the equipment. i did not tell them that i had never driven a mack or drove a diesel truck. they never ask so i never told. there were 10 of us new hires there. the wage was 17 cents a mile which sounded good as they said we could probably get two thousand miles a week with a raise to 19 cents if we made it for two weeks. we were told to report to the dispatch office tomorrow morning at 8 in the morning and we would be assigned trucks.
feb 8 '63 first day of my life for a new experience. showed up at dispatch office at 8 am and dispatcher gave me my orders. 40 thousand pounds of hanging beef sides to be delivered to hunts point new york on feb 11 at 4am on trailer number 106 and power unit number 17.i never heard of that place but i will have to find it. they had told us in orientation what to do and how to do it and to bring our personal items because we might be gone for awhile. i went out into the truck yard and found my units. i checked that the reefer unit was running at 36 degrees and the fuel tank was full. the yard men are supposed to do this before parking them. my power unit was a new '63 f model cab over engine with a 24 inch sleeper. I picked up my duffle bag and swung it up on the driver seat and climbed up to a whole new world. it had two shifting sticks and more gauges than i had ever seen. i just threw my duffle bag in the sleeper unit because i want to get out of here where no one would see how much of a d***head i was because i did not know the first thing about driving this thing. i turned on the key switch and hit the start button and the sound i heard was not what i was used to. i looked under the driver visor and the shift pattern was there. that was a start. it said there were 4 shifts on the left stick and 4 shifts on the right stick. i didn't know what the h*** that meant but i pulled the left stick down toward me and the right stick up toward the dash. i let the clutch out easy and gave a light touch on the throttle and realized it had power steering. i had become quite muscular by fighting the steering on the international. i eased up to the gate and showed the guard my weight bill and he waved me out. i eased out on the clutch in the same gears i was in and saw the guard walk back in the shack he was staying in. i eased it out onto cermak street and tried to shift the right stick to the right and down. i scraped gears but got going faster. i put the left stick in the same position and killed the d*** engine. i put the sticks back where they were when i left the gate and continued along about fifteen miles an hour. i stayed on cermak street and turned left on western ave which would take me to us20 east to us6 south to us30 east. i got to that junction in schererville indiana and there were trucks parked at a resturant so i pulled in there. i saw another f model mack parked and i waited for the driver to come out. i questioned him about how to shift this thing and he spent about an hour showing me how to do it in his truck. we went for a ride and when i came back i had learned that you have to shift both sticks at the same time and the only way to do it was to place your elbow on the steering wheel and do your shifting while feathering the clutch. the company would only pay bridge tolls so i had to go east on us30. i found out that your starts and stops would make the meat move back and forward and that is why they call it swinging meat. i was cruising right along until i came to just outside ft wayne and there are some pretty good curves there and i felt my trailer wheels come up with each curve so the next curve that i came to i eased down on the trailer brake and put more throttle on the truck. that solved that problem. at ft wayne i picked up state route 224 and followed that to tifton ohio where there was a big truck stop. i went to bed there for the night in my new truck. i was proud of myself that i had conquered this diesel truck driving and swinging meat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"From here on out there is quite a bit of sex involved but I will edit that part as best as I can so as not to pull away from the full meaning of his diary."
feb 9 '63 i woke up to someone knocking on my driver door and i pulled the sleeper curtains back and stuck my head out to see one of the night waitresses standing on my door step looking in. i slept nude like i do when i am home so i kinda eased the top part of my body out and unlocked the driver door. she was a knockout. she climbed down and opened the door then lifted herself up and into the drivers seat. we "talked" for about 2 hours and when we were finished "talking" she climbed down from the truck and i gathered some fresh clothes and went into the tiffin truckstop and paid for a good hot shower. i always feel better if i shower after a good "talk". i didn't have to be at hunts point until 4am monday morning so i felt i had enough time even though i had never trucked like i am now. i sat down to a big breakfast of country ham with eggs up and hashbrowns and coffee as black as you can get it. i am a tall muscular man and i eat a lot but i don't get fat. the waitress serving me was about 40 or 45 and kept rubbing her arm across my neck. now that bothered me. i mean i am only barely 30 but i don't let age make a difference. if she wanted to "talk" then we would. I never let it bother me on my trip to california and i am not going to let it bother me now. the gals want to "talk" then we "talk". i finished my breakfast and paid my bill and was just going out the front door when the waitress stepped up beside me and ask if we could "talk" in my truck because she was married and didn't want to "talk" at her house. we "talked" for the better part of an hour and the "talking" came to an end. she said she would see me on my next trip and i agreed. i fired up the mack and looked in my left view mirror and i could see the little green light on the reefer was working so i know the meat was keeping cool. i got back on route224 and drove to warren ohio and picked up route 11 north to route 6 east as i figured this was the best route since the company didn't pay toll road fees. i trucked all day until i made it to scranton pennsylvania and pulled into a truck stop there. i had stopped at coudersport for lunch and it took me six hours to get to scranton. d***n that stretch of road was a white knuckle job. i must have shifted gears at least a hundred times on that stretch of road. by now i had the shift patterns down to where i no longer ripped gears but feathered them so they both worked in a unison. and the swinging meat never bothered me anymore. i better call my wife and then go to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 10 '63 d***n wife told me last nite she was filing for divorce. she couldn't take it anymore with me being gone all the time. i guess it is better that way if that is what she wants to do. i will get to see my boys when i can she told me. i went into the truck stop and ate breakfast and took a shower. back out to my truck and checked the fuel gauge on the reefer and it was still over half full. good fuel mileage on that thing and it runs all the time. i got back on us6 and trucked over to goshen new jersey where the company had a charge for fuel. i wanted to get into hunts point in the day so i didn't have to try and find it at nite. i fueled the mack up and put it back on the road. i was going to pick up route 9 in new york and try to find my way across the george washington bridge while it was still daylite. what a site that was. statue of liberty was nice to see as i had only seen it in movies. i followed all the signs that took me to hunts point with no problem but when i got there the street was already full of trucks. must have been twenty of them ahead of me. i pulled over and shut off my truck. i got out of my truck and had only walked up to the third truck in front of me when the driver told me that i better get back to my truck or there would be nothing left of it in about 5 minutes. i didn't know why he told me that until later. i could see that some of the trucks there had a sunday appointment as they kept moving forward and i would ease up behind the last one. some lot jockey came down the line checking weight bills and when he got to me he got real nasty until i stepped out of the truck and he saw how muscular i was and he quited down. he told me i could stay in line but if any truck behind me had a sunday appointment then they would break the line and go ahead of me. i agreed with that and the a**hole settled down and went on down the line checking weight bills. i kept easing up to the front the rest of the day until i was the first one left and there were only five trucks behind me. it was now around 5 at nite. good thing i ate back up the road because all that was here was a mobile unit that would come by with sandwiches and cold drinks but d*** they were high priced. i did grab me a sandwich just to tide me over. i decided to try to get some sleep so i crawled up in my bunk and closed the curtains. i had locked my doors and left the driver window down about halfway to get the breeze. it was dark and i don't know what time it was but i felt my truck cab move like someone stepped up on it. i figured it might be someone trying to get in so i opened a small part of the curtain and reached down and found my tire billy beside the driver seat. i got a good grip on it and swung open my sleeper curtains and rolled out of bed just in time to see a big black man had the door open and just had his head about middle ways of the driver seat when i knocked him upside his head with the tire billy. he fell backwards out of the truck just screaming. i slipped on my jeans and jumped down from the truck just about the time a cop walked up. i asked him if he was going to call an ambulance since he was bleeding so bad and all he said was he ain't dead yet. he went on to tell me that i should never come to hunts point and stay outside the fence too long at a time. always try to show up at appointment time to be safe. he went on to tell me that just last week some meat hauler parked on the street and he found him with his throat slit and hanging on one of the meat hooks in his trailer. i will have to remember that next time i visit here. i can't go to sleep now so i will just wait until they call me in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 11 '63 i was wide awake when the lot jockey came out and said it was my turn to unload. i went in and backed up to philly b dock but stayed far enough away for them to take the seal off the door handle. the guy came down and started to take the seal off when he ask me if i had a lumper. h*** i had never heard that name before so i ask him what he meant and he said i have to hire a lumper to unload if i don't have one already. i ask him how much it cost and he said 60 bucks. i got real mad right there and i had not even had the seal broken yet. i ask him why i couldn't unload it myself and he said i could but the meat would be spoiled by the time i got it unloaded. i told him that i could unload the trailer in 2 hours and no way was the meat going to spoil because i would leave my reffer unit run and turn the temperature way down so it was really cold. he said that i didn't get the picture here and i ask him what he meant. i was getting madder and my 18inch muscles were flexing in his face. he said if i unloaded it myself the government inspector would be in no hurry to check out the beef but if the lumper unloaded it then it would be inspected as soon as he hit the dock with a half side of beef. i got the picture right there. i pay the lumper. the lumper splits with the government inspector and i get unloaded. if i don't pay the lumper then i may not get unloaded at all. i drive 500 miles and make 85 bucks and i have to pay some lumper 60 of that just so they can receive their own freight. i turned around and went locked up my truck and walked up the steps to the dock to a pay telephone that was at the end. i called dispatch and got a dispatcher on the phone. these people want me to pay a commie to unload the beef and i have to pay 60 bucks to get it done
feb 11 '63 i was wide awake when the lot jockey came out and said it was my turn to unload. i went in and backed up to philly b dock but stayed far enough away for them to take the seal off the door handle. the guy came down and started to take the seal off when he ask me if i had a lumper. i had never heard that name before so i ask him what he meant and he said i have to hire a lumper to unload if i don't have one already. i ask him how much it cost and he said 60 bucks. i got real mad right there and i had not even had the seal broken yet. i ask him why i couldn't unload it myself and he said i could but the meat would be spoiled by the time i got it unloaded. i told him that i could unload the trailer in 2 hours and no way was the meat going to spoil because i would leave my reffer unit run and turn the temperature way down so it was really cold. he said that i didn't get the picture here and i ask him what he meant. i was getting madder and my 18inch muscles were flexing in his face. he said if i unloaded it myself the government inspector would be in no hurry to check out the beef but if the lumper unloaded it then it would be inspected as soon as he hit the dock with a half side of beef. i got the picture right there. i pay the lumper. the lumper splits with the government inspector and i get unloaded. if i don't pay the lumper then i may not get unloaded at all. i drive 500 miles and make 85 bucks and i have to pay some lumper 60 of that just so they can receive their own freight. i turned around and went locked up my truck and walked up the steps to the dock to a pay telephone that was at the end. i called dispatch and got a dispatcher on the phone. these people want me to pay a lumper to unload the beef and i have to pay 60 bucks to get it done so now is the company going to pay me back. dispatcher said they forgot to tell me that i had to pay lumper fees if i use them. i said if they want me to bring back a load of spoiled beef cause that is what is going to happen cause i ain't paying the lumper and he gives half of it to a goverment agent. i mean i was hot at the dispatcher and he told me he would authorize this one time payment. i went back to the first guy and handed him 60 bucks and he jumped down off the dock and cut the seal off the trailer and compared it to the weight bill. told me to swing my doors open and then back it up tight to the dock. i locked my truck back up and went on to the dock with my weight bills still in my hand and everytime they took off a side of beef i would mark the number of it off the weight bill. when i got unloaded and had my signed weight bills in hand and he noted that i paid the lumper it was just shy of 6 in the morning. i went back to the pay phone and called dispatch again. i was told to go to carlisle to the twin gables truck stop and call from there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is a lot more left in the journal but it will not be published here as it may be too offensive to some of the community. I wish I could have taken you through his retirement years of 1993 but I felt different the farther I read. I hope you have enjoyed a little part of his life.
From 1983 until 1993 he was the owner/lessee of over 500 trucks and over 2000 trailers for one of the largest meat haulers still hauling freight today.
The life and times of grandpa (bubba smith) in his own words taken from his diary. I will be updating daily I hope but there sure is a big diary.
I can't copy and paste out of a diary so all sayings will be quotes from the diary unless I jump in to say something.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nov 27 '53 and straight out of the Army after 3 years. I didn't make a diary of my Korea experience because I was just lucky to stay alive.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom made Thanksgiving dinner with a turkey from granny and granps farm. Sure was delicious.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Got a date tonight with a gourgeos redhead from New Castle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nov 30 '53 Been on a 3 day drunk and sober enough now to find a job
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 4 '53 found a job here in town driving a straight truck for a hay dealer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 7 '53 got 200 bales of alfalfa hay to unload at Indianapolis stockyards. it is 4 am and i have to be there by 5. better get my ass in gear because that '50 chevy don't have a 2 speed in it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
met a guy at the stockyards driving a semi loaded with 500 bales. asked me if i ever drove a semi and i lied and said yes. he said there was an opening with his boss and i should call.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 8 '53 called the man about the job and he said he would put me to work if i could be there by thrusday morning of the 10th and i said i would be there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dec 10 '53 i arrived at Arlington Park Illinois at 5am and was waiting on the company John Henricks Hay and Straw to open up. they have a contract to haul hay to the race track and the drivers pick the hay up in wisconsin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7am and the boss introduced himself to me and said for me to get into unit #13 which was a brand new corn binder of single axle and 2 speed rear end. he said to follow his buyer to Sheboygan and he would help me load 500 bales of bromme hay to bring back to the headquarters. I got in that binder and didnt know shit abut the gears. my buyer had already left and it was snowing ass deep to a donkey cart and i hadnt even moved yet. so i put it in a gear and released the clutch real slow and thank god i had it in second so the boss must have thought i knew what i was doing and waved good bye. i didnt see the buyer anywhare and i trucked along afraid to try to shift gears because it was slick on the road. about 2 miles away from headquarters i hit a slick patch of ice and i was going everywhere but on the road. finally i ended up in the ditch. the buyer tracked back and found me in the ditch and we left the unit there until it clears up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 11 '53 boss had the binder pulled out of ditch an pulled to the dealer to make sure all was ok. he told me the night before i could pick it up at 7am and the hay buyer would meet me there so we could go to sheboygan to pick up the hay. i went to the dealer at 5am to see if i could learn anything about the binder. i had keys to it so i got in it and found the dealers book. that thing had all shift patterns in it so i spent the next 2 hours going through the gears and 2 speed until i was sure i had it down. in the next 131 miles i was a real truck driver now. the hay buyer left me at the farmers and we loaded the bromme hay. i left the farmers and made it back down route 57 to west allis where a couple other company drivers had stopped at a diner. we left the diner and i was lead pack of 3 trucks and i was crusing along at 45 mile hour. we were all driving new R-195 with a 24,000 lbs GVW, and a Red Diamond 406 engine, 14 inch clutch, direct drive five speed transmission, and Eaton single reduction rear axle with a top speed of 55 miles hour. very few of these cab over trucks were on the market yet but the boss owned the local dealership so he had first divies on them. he was running 3 of them and he had 3 '53 R165s that he shuttled local hay with. it was just turning dusk when i was coming to caledonia wisconsin when all of a sudden boom whap bang and my truck came to a dead stop. i left it in gear and turned off the motor and stepped out and what a damn mess i had strewn behind me. one of the other drivers came up and told me that i was supposed to lay the top tier flat baled instead of side baled because it would make you over 13 ft high and that damn bridge that stopped me was 13 foot.damn buyer should told me this since this was my first job with them. we all managed to get most of the bales back on the trailer and roped down and headed on to the garage. it was now well past 9pm and my ass was dragging on my first day of the job. good thing those bales only weighed 40 pounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 12 '53 boss called the rooming house where i stay and told the lady he would like to see me at 7am if i was there. something important he said so since he is paying my rooming house bill and giving me a hundred bucks wage a week i have to go see him. good wages and a place to stay are hard to find right now. i did have a good looking gal that i wanted to see this saturday but that can wait. i walked over to the hay garage at 7am. it is only about 1500 feet from the rooming house. in front of the hay garage sat a brand new 1953 two story red international. the nameplate said it was a International RDTC-405. i saw it yesterday at the dealership. i walked into the hay garage and the boss met me. he did not have a office in the hay garage and just hanged around when he did not have business somewhere else. he reached in his pocket and brought out a lot of money and peeled off a fresh twenty and handed it to me. that was my pay for the 1 day of work. sure is good pay but hard work too. he said he paid every thing in cash so i would not have a payroll check. he said that the new truck out front was for me to drive because he was going to use me on some long distance runs and it would be more comfortable. he then took me out back where a brand new trailer sat. his special made trailers are sunk down in the middle and the metal goes up 4 feet around the sides. they are made to hold excatly 500 bales of the small size if you load it right. he asked me if i would like to make a trip to burnside kentucky monday morning. i said shit yes because i had never been very far from home except my military time. he said it was about 500 miles and that he would have the trailer loaded now if i wanted to leave and i could spend a couple days with mom and dad on the way if i wanted too. i told him that that would be ok with me. he said to be back in 2 hours and he would have everything ready for my trip. i went back to the rooming house and got in the bathtub and picked up some clothes and returned in 2 hours and there sat the new binder,that is what they call internationals.the new trailer was loaded with straw bales and rope tied down. the boss handed me 600 dollars to make the trip. damn i could have a good drunk on that kind of money but i won't. he said there was a new jack and lug wrench along with 2 new tubes in the truck in case i had a flat. how in the hell am i going to fix a flat. i don't know a shittin thing about it. i pulled into mom and dads at noon and i will stay here until monday morning for the trip.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 13 '53 didn't do much today except help dad work on his '50 dodge pick up. damn thing threw a bearing and we took the pan down and filed the babbit down until we got a tight fit. put it back together and it never made a knock. went to see my girlfriend this evening and she is already wanting to get married since i have a good paying job. think i will wait awhile on the marriage thing. came back home and penned this in my diary. long trip ahead tomorrow
dec 14 '53 drank a little too much last night. mom had to wake me up at 6am to get me on the road. mom filled me up with biscuits and gravy and i hit the road at 7 am. i sure like this new truck and it even has a bed behind me so if i want i can take a nap. mom made it up real nice with clean sheets and pillow tops and a fresh blanket and a left a couple extra blankets because it is cold out side. nice day to truck. no snow here. when i got to louisville the damn sky opened up with heavy snow. i got lost trying to find us 150 south. i saw a couple trucks parked by a diner so i joined them. i guess they hadn't invented truck stops yet cause i never saw one all the way down here so far. did run across a couple weight stations though. it was noon already so i went in and had some lunch and it started clearing up. i had left the truck running and when i came back out and climbed up in it it was nice and warm. the little heater had done a good job to be so small of a heater. damn kentuckians don't believe in road signs but i found us 150 and took it to danville. i hit a weight station just past danville and had to show them my weigh bills and cleared ok. then i picked up us 27 south to somerset. the boss told me to take the gravel road in the center of town west until i came to a big rise in the road and the farm would be on the left at the top of the hill. good thing the snow had let up or i would drove right by it cause it is set back from the road. it was now 5pm and when i pulled up to the house i thought i was back in the army. 20 damn men came running out of the house and surrounded my truck. i thought to myself that something was damn fishy here. 1 of the men climbed up and told me to shut it off and climb out and he would take it from here. what the hell is so important about this load of baled straw. i still had 200 bucks left and i thought about just running afoot out of there. they had sent 2 of the men back into the house with me and told me that i would be staying the night and they would load me back out with hay for the return trip. i wasn't going to sleep too good tonight.
"You will notice that grandpa never capitalized any thing. us150 meaning US Highway 150."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 15 '53 i tossed and turned all night not knowing what would stare me in the face in the morning. got myself up and around at 6am and went downstairs where i was met by the same 2 men that took me to the house. they said my truck and trailer were ready to go. i d*** sure was ready to go. they gave me instructions that the trailer was loaded with 200 bales of alfalfa large bales and i was to deliver it to a warehouse on south cicero street in chicago. they gave me 600 bucks for expenses to make the trip. it would probably take that and some of my 200 left over because it was all up hill going back and the hay bales weighted more.it still didn't make sense to me that they were so protective with the load of straw but didn't seem to give a d*** about this load of hay. i did notice that there were 2 new tires on the front of my truck and ask them why. they said the others were pretty worn. i knew better because they only had the 500 miles on them from the trip down but i didn't say anything about it. as soon as i turned out of the drive onto the gravel road i felt like the front was steering different. when i got to somerset i stopped and looked under the front end but i didn't see anything wrong there so i just sensed that it was the new tires were making a difference. when i got to the scales at danville they pulled me over to the side after checking my weight bills. the man came out of the scales with a long pointed pole and climbed onto the top of the hay and began poking the pole down through the hay. i asked him why and he told me that they have truckers coming up from the south that are carring moonshine jugs loaded into cavities of the hay. he gave me a clean go through and let me proceed so i guessed i was ok. i got back to mom and dads about 9 pm and they were glad to see me. I decided to stay the night because if i went on to chicago it would be late and i would have to sleep in my truck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dec 16 '53 me and dad were drinking coffee at 6am and we decided to unload those 200 bales of hay to see if there really was and moonshine hidden that maybe the scaleman may have missed. we unloaded it clear down to the first layer in the trailer belly and found nothing so we reloaded the d*** hay but i felt better that i would not be caught with some moonshine and spend time in prison for carrying it. i left mom and dads at noon because i knew that it would take 3 hours for the 100 mile trip to chicago. i pulled into the cicero street warehouse at about 3pm. i knew where it was because another of the boss drivers had told me how to get there once. they only had 2 guys working and i was told that it would be 2 or 3 hours before it would be unloaded. i decided to try out my new bed in the truck. 1 of the guys woke me up 3 hours later and told me i was ready to go back to the company garage. i got back to the garage about 10pm and locked up my truck and went to the rooming house for a good nights sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"All grandpa did for the next 10 years was haul hay out of Wisconsin and there is nothing of interest in those pages of the diary. He did finally get married a year after he first started working and had a rented house in McHenry Illinois along with 2 sons born in that time. He bought a new Packard Convertible in 1958 and there is a lot of pages of the diary pointing to that and his boys enjoying themselves fishing and other dad/son things."
"I will fast forward to Tuesday, February 5th 1963."
~~~~~~
"I missed a few pages from his 1953 and later years so I will post them next and readers can back up to those years...sorry"
feb 5 '63 after 10 years of hauling hay and straw i found it time to say good bye to henricks hay and straw. i left because the boss got in trouble with the feds. they came to my house and ask me a bunch of questions about moonshine and i told them i didn't know anything about it but one time when i hauled a load of straw to burnside kentucky i felt like something was wrong. i told them everything that happened down and back. they told me he was under investigation for transporting moonshine interstate. they said that the straw was a cover for the moonshine still and the return trip was by using new tubes in the tires and they would put 25 gallon in each tube then air it up so it looked tight. i did not even think about that when my truck was feeling woobly in the front end. he had been doing this for a lot of years by using other truckers. moonshine was selling for like 40 bucks a gallon in chicago but the boss was dispensing it in 16 ounce mickeys for 20 bucks each.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 6 '63 spent all day looking for another job. i met with doctor milt ratner who had just bought midwest transportation and emery freight and started a reefer company called midwest emery transport. the interview went good and i think i will get a job with them. he bought 50 new '62 f model coe macks "Cab over engine"and 100 trailmobile 40 foot reefers. i guess he is lining up a bunch of shippers the way he talked. when i got home from chicago my wife told me that midwest emery had called and wanted me to start driver orientation tomorrow morning at 8am. d*** glad to hear that as i was running out of money. things are looking up for the start of this year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 7 '54 the hay is not good in wisconsin right now so the boss wants to send his 3 road drivers to san francisco california to bring back 1500 bales for the arlington heights race track. the boss bought 2 more International RDTC-405s so we would all travel together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 8 '54 all 3 of us drivers met up at 5am to start our trip west. we had to be there by jan 29 to load the hay. this is going to be one h*** of a trip. he gave us each 1000 cash and when we ran out he would western union us more money. he had us routed leaving arlington heights south to us30 and west to soda springs idaho then south on idaho34 to pick up us40 west to san francisco then route 101 to gilroy then 152 east to the hay dealer. it was about 7am when we reached colo iowa and we all stopped to gas up and eat at hunter truck stop. their dx gas was 29.9 cents a gallon and their breakfast was good. east of clinton iowa we came upon a wreck of a highway trooper who had rolled his car several times and the trooper was dead in the car. we came upon a 12 9 inch height bridge west of ogden nebraska and had to take a bypass around even though we were empty. seem like p.i.e. trucks own route 30. they are coming and going all day. we made it to grand island truck stop in nebraska and it was dark so with this being a 2 lane highway and not knowing it we all turned into out bunks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 9 '54 we trucked hard all day since 7am. we all stopped 3 times to eat and gas up. gas is cheaper here in wyoming at 21.9 cents a gallon. we were to rock springs when we stopped for the night at 9 pm. first truck stop we found in 300 miles. not much of one but at least we could gas up and get a bite to eat. it set out in the middle of nowhere so we pulled way back behind it so we couldn't hear the d**** p.i.e. trucks going by.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 10 '54 started out at 6am after breakfast. they sure did feed good for a buck twenty five. twenty miles west of green river the trailing driver was flashing his lights at me so i pulled off the side of the road and saw that i had a flat tire on the inside dual on the passenger side. would do no good to go back to green river cause there was nothing there that could fix a truck flat. all we could do was fix the flat here so we dug out the jack and lugwrench and took the tire and wheel off the truck. the boss did think about this so he equiped each truck with a jack and lugwrench and two tire tools and two 9 hundred by 20 new tubes. he had also made up a gladhand with a nozzle so you could hook it onto the truck gladhand and air up a tire. all of the trucks had 9hundred by 20 tires mounted on dayton wheels that used split rims. we would have to use the tire tools to remove the lock rim and then we put the tire under the trailer dolly and cranked the dolly down so it broke the tire away from the rim. we put the new tube in and then lifted the tire and wheel up on top of the frame of the truck and slid it back under the nose of the trailer. we did this because if the lock ring broke loose it wouldn't injure anyone. we aired the tire up by hooking the two gladhands together. got it all done and back on the truck in two hours. we were on our way again and about 20 miles outside evanston the eastbound drivers were holding up two fingers in their windshield which meant that the scales were open there. we stopped just before the scales at a small cafe along side the road that had room for our trucks and we ate lunch. we made it through the scales ok and trucked the rest of the day until we made it to soda springs idaho and our cutoff going south to pick up us40. it was about 10 at night so we went to our bunks for some sound sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 11 '54 had breakfast at a little resturant in soda springs and got on route 34 and drove to the junction of us 40 and headed west. we drove all day with a couple gas stops and blowing snow in spots and made it to winnemuca nevada by 8 pm. roadys truck stop has a shower. we all took one as it was the first we could find since leaving. we slept in our trucks after the shower and a good meal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 12 '54 it is 8pm and we can't leave the truck stop because there is a blizzard going through. I have never seen this much d*** snow in my life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 13 '54 there are seven consolidated freight drivers plus us three cramped into this little cafe because the d**** snow won't let up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 14'54 snow has cleared up enough so we can move off this d*** mountain. we all have to gas up cause we had to leave trucks running so they would not freeze up. we headed out at about 10 in the morning and after we got off the mountain the roads cleared up enough to make some good time. we are trying to make to sparks because the considated freight drivers were tell us there is a good little truck stop there called bill and effies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 15 '54 didn't get in to sparks until after midnight so we slept the rest of the night until 7 in the morning. bill and effies is not what i thought it would be. it only had six gas pumps and the cafe only had eight counter stools with three tables also. bill and effie were nice people and they told us the hardest part of our trip was going to be donner pass. kind of scary the way they talked about all the trucks that have been lost there. made it down to the bottom at 5 at night and i will be d*** if we go back home with loaded trailers that way. i was ok until we got to emigrant pass and it was a b**** from there on down. we stopped at rocklin california for the night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 16 '54 we left rocklin at 6 in the morning. a lot more places to buy gas in california but the gas price is high at 36 cents a gallon. sacramento was pretty but san francisco had a lot of hills on us40 but once we got to 101 it leveled out. we pulled into gilroy hay at 6 at nite. D*** this is a big hay dealer. must have a hundred acres of baled hay stacked up. they won't load us till morning. there was no motel at gilroy but there was one at hollister so we came here for the night. good bed and good shower. they both feel good. after 8 days of being in the truck i am going for a good nites sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jan 17 '54 we all got loaded around noon and i decided that we would go back home by using route 101 south to los angeles and picking up route us 66. i am sure it can't be as bad as that route us40 was going west out of truckee nevada. i will western union the boss for more money as we are getting low now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No excitement on the return trip so I will post his last entry when he reaches Chicago."
jan 22 '54 the judgement call i made on the return route was the right one. better 2 lane road and better weather. 5 days on the return trip even being loaded. the only really bad road was from oatman arizona to kingman arizona and from grants new mexico to tijeras new mexico. good trucking from there until we got around joplin misssouri to springfield missouri. i would not care to make another trip that long with the international RDTC-405.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will pick up where we left off in 1963."
feb 6 '63 spent all day looking for another job. i met with doctor milt ratner who had just bought midwest transportation and emery freight and started a reefer company called midwest emery transport. the interview went good and i think i will get a job with them. he bought 50 new '62 f model coe macks "Cab over engine"and 100 trailmobile 40 foot reefers. i guess he is lining up a bunch of shippers the way he talked. when i got home from chicago my wife told me that midwest emery had called and wanted me to start driver orientation tomorrow morning at 8am. d*** glad to hear that as i was running out of money. things are looking up for the start of this year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 7 '63 went to driver orientation today and it was not much. they just talked about how the company was going to be run and made sure we knew how to operate the equipment. i did not tell them that i had never driven a mack or drove a diesel truck. they never ask so i never told. there were 10 of us new hires there. the wage was 17 cents a mile which sounded good as they said we could probably get two thousand miles a week with a raise to 19 cents if we made it for two weeks. we were told to report to the dispatch office tomorrow morning at 8 in the morning and we would be assigned trucks.
feb 8 '63 first day of my life for a new experience. showed up at dispatch office at 8 am and dispatcher gave me my orders. 40 thousand pounds of hanging beef sides to be delivered to hunts point new york on feb 11 at 4am on trailer number 106 and power unit number 17.i never heard of that place but i will have to find it. they had told us in orientation what to do and how to do it and to bring our personal items because we might be gone for awhile. i went out into the truck yard and found my units. i checked that the reefer unit was running at 36 degrees and the fuel tank was full. the yard men are supposed to do this before parking them. my power unit was a new '63 f model cab over engine with a 24 inch sleeper. I picked up my duffle bag and swung it up on the driver seat and climbed up to a whole new world. it had two shifting sticks and more gauges than i had ever seen. i just threw my duffle bag in the sleeper unit because i want to get out of here where no one would see how much of a d***head i was because i did not know the first thing about driving this thing. i turned on the key switch and hit the start button and the sound i heard was not what i was used to. i looked under the driver visor and the shift pattern was there. that was a start. it said there were 4 shifts on the left stick and 4 shifts on the right stick. i didn't know what the h*** that meant but i pulled the left stick down toward me and the right stick up toward the dash. i let the clutch out easy and gave a light touch on the throttle and realized it had power steering. i had become quite muscular by fighting the steering on the international. i eased up to the gate and showed the guard my weight bill and he waved me out. i eased out on the clutch in the same gears i was in and saw the guard walk back in the shack he was staying in. i eased it out onto cermak street and tried to shift the right stick to the right and down. i scraped gears but got going faster. i put the left stick in the same position and killed the d*** engine. i put the sticks back where they were when i left the gate and continued along about fifteen miles an hour. i stayed on cermak street and turned left on western ave which would take me to us20 east to us6 south to us30 east. i got to that junction in schererville indiana and there were trucks parked at a resturant so i pulled in there. i saw another f model mack parked and i waited for the driver to come out. i questioned him about how to shift this thing and he spent about an hour showing me how to do it in his truck. we went for a ride and when i came back i had learned that you have to shift both sticks at the same time and the only way to do it was to place your elbow on the steering wheel and do your shifting while feathering the clutch. the company would only pay bridge tolls so i had to go east on us30. i found out that your starts and stops would make the meat move back and forward and that is why they call it swinging meat. i was cruising right along until i came to just outside ft wayne and there are some pretty good curves there and i felt my trailer wheels come up with each curve so the next curve that i came to i eased down on the trailer brake and put more throttle on the truck. that solved that problem. at ft wayne i picked up state route 224 and followed that to tifton ohio where there was a big truck stop. i went to bed there for the night in my new truck. i was proud of myself that i had conquered this diesel truck driving and swinging meat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"From here on out there is quite a bit of sex involved but I will edit that part as best as I can so as not to pull away from the full meaning of his diary."
feb 9 '63 i woke up to someone knocking on my driver door and i pulled the sleeper curtains back and stuck my head out to see one of the night waitresses standing on my door step looking in. i slept nude like i do when i am home so i kinda eased the top part of my body out and unlocked the driver door. she was a knockout. she climbed down and opened the door then lifted herself up and into the drivers seat. we "talked" for about 2 hours and when we were finished "talking" she climbed down from the truck and i gathered some fresh clothes and went into the tiffin truckstop and paid for a good hot shower. i always feel better if i shower after a good "talk". i didn't have to be at hunts point until 4am monday morning so i felt i had enough time even though i had never trucked like i am now. i sat down to a big breakfast of country ham with eggs up and hashbrowns and coffee as black as you can get it. i am a tall muscular man and i eat a lot but i don't get fat. the waitress serving me was about 40 or 45 and kept rubbing her arm across my neck. now that bothered me. i mean i am only barely 30 but i don't let age make a difference. if she wanted to "talk" then we would. I never let it bother me on my trip to california and i am not going to let it bother me now. the gals want to "talk" then we "talk". i finished my breakfast and paid my bill and was just going out the front door when the waitress stepped up beside me and ask if we could "talk" in my truck because she was married and didn't want to "talk" at her house. we "talked" for the better part of an hour and the "talking" came to an end. she said she would see me on my next trip and i agreed. i fired up the mack and looked in my left view mirror and i could see the little green light on the reefer was working so i know the meat was keeping cool. i got back on route224 and drove to warren ohio and picked up route 11 north to route 6 east as i figured this was the best route since the company didn't pay toll road fees. i trucked all day until i made it to scranton pennsylvania and pulled into a truck stop there. i had stopped at coudersport for lunch and it took me six hours to get to scranton. d***n that stretch of road was a white knuckle job. i must have shifted gears at least a hundred times on that stretch of road. by now i had the shift patterns down to where i no longer ripped gears but feathered them so they both worked in a unison. and the swinging meat never bothered me anymore. i better call my wife and then go to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 10 '63 d***n wife told me last nite she was filing for divorce. she couldn't take it anymore with me being gone all the time. i guess it is better that way if that is what she wants to do. i will get to see my boys when i can she told me. i went into the truck stop and ate breakfast and took a shower. back out to my truck and checked the fuel gauge on the reefer and it was still over half full. good fuel mileage on that thing and it runs all the time. i got back on us6 and trucked over to goshen new jersey where the company had a charge for fuel. i wanted to get into hunts point in the day so i didn't have to try and find it at nite. i fueled the mack up and put it back on the road. i was going to pick up route 9 in new york and try to find my way across the george washington bridge while it was still daylite. what a site that was. statue of liberty was nice to see as i had only seen it in movies. i followed all the signs that took me to hunts point with no problem but when i got there the street was already full of trucks. must have been twenty of them ahead of me. i pulled over and shut off my truck. i got out of my truck and had only walked up to the third truck in front of me when the driver told me that i better get back to my truck or there would be nothing left of it in about 5 minutes. i didn't know why he told me that until later. i could see that some of the trucks there had a sunday appointment as they kept moving forward and i would ease up behind the last one. some lot jockey came down the line checking weight bills and when he got to me he got real nasty until i stepped out of the truck and he saw how muscular i was and he quited down. he told me i could stay in line but if any truck behind me had a sunday appointment then they would break the line and go ahead of me. i agreed with that and the a**hole settled down and went on down the line checking weight bills. i kept easing up to the front the rest of the day until i was the first one left and there were only five trucks behind me. it was now around 5 at nite. good thing i ate back up the road because all that was here was a mobile unit that would come by with sandwiches and cold drinks but d*** they were high priced. i did grab me a sandwich just to tide me over. i decided to try to get some sleep so i crawled up in my bunk and closed the curtains. i had locked my doors and left the driver window down about halfway to get the breeze. it was dark and i don't know what time it was but i felt my truck cab move like someone stepped up on it. i figured it might be someone trying to get in so i opened a small part of the curtain and reached down and found my tire billy beside the driver seat. i got a good grip on it and swung open my sleeper curtains and rolled out of bed just in time to see a big black man had the door open and just had his head about middle ways of the driver seat when i knocked him upside his head with the tire billy. he fell backwards out of the truck just screaming. i slipped on my jeans and jumped down from the truck just about the time a cop walked up. i asked him if he was going to call an ambulance since he was bleeding so bad and all he said was he ain't dead yet. he went on to tell me that i should never come to hunts point and stay outside the fence too long at a time. always try to show up at appointment time to be safe. he went on to tell me that just last week some meat hauler parked on the street and he found him with his throat slit and hanging on one of the meat hooks in his trailer. i will have to remember that next time i visit here. i can't go to sleep now so i will just wait until they call me in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
feb 11 '63 i was wide awake when the lot jockey came out and said it was my turn to unload. i went in and backed up to philly b dock but stayed far enough away for them to take the seal off the door handle. the guy came down and started to take the seal off when he ask me if i had a lumper. h*** i had never heard that name before so i ask him what he meant and he said i have to hire a lumper to unload if i don't have one already. i ask him how much it cost and he said 60 bucks. i got real mad right there and i had not even had the seal broken yet. i ask him why i couldn't unload it myself and he said i could but the meat would be spoiled by the time i got it unloaded. i told him that i could unload the trailer in 2 hours and no way was the meat going to spoil because i would leave my reffer unit run and turn the temperature way down so it was really cold. he said that i didn't get the picture here and i ask him what he meant. i was getting madder and my 18inch muscles were flexing in his face. he said if i unloaded it myself the government inspector would be in no hurry to check out the beef but if the lumper unloaded it then it would be inspected as soon as he hit the dock with a half side of beef. i got the picture right there. i pay the lumper. the lumper splits with the government inspector and i get unloaded. if i don't pay the lumper then i may not get unloaded at all. i drive 500 miles and make 85 bucks and i have to pay some lumper 60 of that just so they can receive their own freight. i turned around and went locked up my truck and walked up the steps to the dock to a pay telephone that was at the end. i called dispatch and got a dispatcher on the phone. these people want me to pay a commie to unload the beef and i have to pay 60 bucks to get it done
feb 11 '63 i was wide awake when the lot jockey came out and said it was my turn to unload. i went in and backed up to philly b dock but stayed far enough away for them to take the seal off the door handle. the guy came down and started to take the seal off when he ask me if i had a lumper. i had never heard that name before so i ask him what he meant and he said i have to hire a lumper to unload if i don't have one already. i ask him how much it cost and he said 60 bucks. i got real mad right there and i had not even had the seal broken yet. i ask him why i couldn't unload it myself and he said i could but the meat would be spoiled by the time i got it unloaded. i told him that i could unload the trailer in 2 hours and no way was the meat going to spoil because i would leave my reffer unit run and turn the temperature way down so it was really cold. he said that i didn't get the picture here and i ask him what he meant. i was getting madder and my 18inch muscles were flexing in his face. he said if i unloaded it myself the government inspector would be in no hurry to check out the beef but if the lumper unloaded it then it would be inspected as soon as he hit the dock with a half side of beef. i got the picture right there. i pay the lumper. the lumper splits with the government inspector and i get unloaded. if i don't pay the lumper then i may not get unloaded at all. i drive 500 miles and make 85 bucks and i have to pay some lumper 60 of that just so they can receive their own freight. i turned around and went locked up my truck and walked up the steps to the dock to a pay telephone that was at the end. i called dispatch and got a dispatcher on the phone. these people want me to pay a lumper to unload the beef and i have to pay 60 bucks to get it done so now is the company going to pay me back. dispatcher said they forgot to tell me that i had to pay lumper fees if i use them. i said if they want me to bring back a load of spoiled beef cause that is what is going to happen cause i ain't paying the lumper and he gives half of it to a goverment agent. i mean i was hot at the dispatcher and he told me he would authorize this one time payment. i went back to the first guy and handed him 60 bucks and he jumped down off the dock and cut the seal off the trailer and compared it to the weight bill. told me to swing my doors open and then back it up tight to the dock. i locked my truck back up and went on to the dock with my weight bills still in my hand and everytime they took off a side of beef i would mark the number of it off the weight bill. when i got unloaded and had my signed weight bills in hand and he noted that i paid the lumper it was just shy of 6 in the morning. i went back to the pay phone and called dispatch again. i was told to go to carlisle to the twin gables truck stop and call from there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is a lot more left in the journal but it will not be published here as it may be too offensive to some of the community. I wish I could have taken you through his retirement years of 1993 but I felt different the farther I read. I hope you have enjoyed a little part of his life.
From 1983 until 1993 he was the owner/lessee of over 500 trucks and over 2000 trailers for one of the largest meat haulers still hauling freight today.
