Shifting Gears: Testimony of a Big Rig Driver

Introduction

I love the transportation industry and have been in it for most of my life. I have been a trucker since the early nineteen eighties. But the desire to be a trucker was born many years before I ever knew how to drive. I have been able to work in several segments of the transportation industry as well. First, as a parts man, then as a mechanic, and finally a truck driver, and now I am motor coach driver. I want to share my life story with you of how my life has been impacted by the transportation industry for the better and the worse.

I grew up in the suburbs of the city of Los Angeles with all its traffic and hustle and bustle. I was born in the mid-fifties and all that was involved in that time. While growing up I was able to do many things before I started to drive, some of those things had to do with dirt. Yes dirt. I think the first time I encountered it I ate some of it, and it wasn’t too bad. Then I learned to play in it but even then, cars and trucks were on my mind. I made freeways or roadways in the dirt to drive my little plastic cars, then as I got older my dad helped me to learn how to plant vegetation in it and take care of what I planted. As I grew older, I got odd jobs of taking care of lawns besides our own. My dad was gone all the time working as a parts man for Ford Motor Company in Santa Monica, so I became the person he put in charge of the lawns. I enjoyed this type of working with my hands and using the skills that my dad taught me in his perfectionist ways. But I also mixed it with my need to move, first by walking, then bike riding, then running and finally driving. As I reflect on my need to move it brings back a great memory that I shared with my dad, Charlie. We lived close to Disneyland at the time and when we were there, I was about nine years old, and I really wanted to go on a ride. This ride had go-carts, but you had to be a certain size, weight and be accompanied by a parent. I pestered my dad enough that he finally took me on it, and I was the right size and weight. I got to be in the driver’s seat while my dad sat next to me and helped me with how to maneuver that little go-cart. I was driving and I loved it from that moment on. Not just the going fast part, after all how fast can a go-cart go with a Briggs & Stratton 5 horsepower engine on it for power. I loved the movement of it and the strategy of driving it in the proper places and not hitting anything while I was driving it. Nothing in life has ever filled me with so much peace and excitement at the same time.

My dad was not around much because he worked so much at the Ford dealership. But all the dads at that time worked all day and I cannot think of one who was not gone all day. There was an airplane pilot that lived across the street who took trips and then was off for a few days, but he was the exception. My friend Greg’s dad who was home most nights because he was in construction was also an exception.

The city was a place where you did not talk to strangers because they would just look at you with a glare in their eyes and walk on past you. I thought that most people were unfriendly until I moved out of the city years later. I think I was an average kid at the time and did the average things like go to school, do chores at home, mind my parents and so forth.

But as I grew older, I grew more rebellious of authority, my parents, civil authorities, and government authorities. As I look back at that time most everybody my age was rebellious because of all the civil unrest over the war in Viet Nam and before that Korea. One of the big three TV stations televised the war on TV during dinner hour. Which, I did not like by the way, but there it was right in front of you, soldiers aiming rifles meant to kill other soldiers on the other side of the field. We could also watch the Ed Sullivan show, Laugh-In, or Carol Burnett, or Saturday Night Live, show for comedy relief. There was a drug culture forming as well and a counter-cultural movement for those who wanted to “drop out,” of the so-called society called “hippies.” This is where I wound up for a few years, imitating their lifestyle. In fact, I did not realize how many years until later in life I was stuck there. It was not until I was 33 years old that I parted company with this lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock & roll with the help of Jesus Christ my Lord.

One of the other reasons that I originally got into trucking was to escape the normal day to day routine of life, the eight to five for five for six days a week, and to do whatever I wanted to do with my time. I learned as the years passed by that my ways were not the best ways to live my life. The escaping life part of driving created more problems.

Once I learned to drive there was no way to hold me back from the open road. I do not think that everyone has this desire, but I certainly did. So, in the process of living my life I traveled to many places and meet many people. I loved the freedom of being able to travel because I loved to drive. I love the road, maybe it is because I loved the dirt and being on the ground instead of in the sky or on the water., that is just the way I am wired.

As a trucker for several decades, I will do my best to share my life experiences with you which that has made me who I am today, both good and bad experiences. Hang on! Some of my story is a rough ride and I hope you enjoy it and that it sheds a little a little more light on those guys in the big trucks who pass you on the road.

I dedicate this book to my son Mike and hope to fill in some of the 27 years of life that we missed out on together. I also thank God for the family He gave me and my wife of 18 years Joy who has been there for me as much as God has. Also, to my friends who a part of my life that loved me and put up with me in so many ways and sowed their treasures into my life. All who were a part of my life thank you for sharing your life with me. A big thank you to my birth parents whoever they are for being able to give me up and put me into a good family, I am forever grateful to you.

Life continues to happen during trucking or whatever else that you choose to do as an occupation. There were also key moments in my life that led up to me turning my life to Christ. The Lord ministered to me through circumstances of my life and His word and many other ways and still does today. These moments will be referenced as a God moments.