A great documentary about trucking in the 70's

i /we just watched that 5 times. wow, and thanks. How bout ya, @mountaingote ? etc???? good ole days, cabover Petes....

 

This is really neat.
Thanks for posting this.

Kind of makes me happy to see trucking hasn't changed, 3 minutes into the video an old timer says "it's not what it used to be, don't drive a truck unless you have to" lol

 

Well, I lived it, and it wasn't near as glorious as they make it seem. The 2nd guys response is priceless, "like getting married, everybody told you not to do it, but you did anyway". The 70's was a turbulent time to drive a truck, and the trucker's strike in the late 70's scared the heck out this, at the time, newbie. C.W. McCall immortalized this era, with "Convoy". Look at all the cabovers. Just to be clear, "Teardrop" is driving a cabover (KW?) with no power steering. Took a special kind of gal to do that back then, as it was primarily a man's job. My ex-gf started trucking in the early 80's, and faced a rift of discontent from her male counterparts, something that has, and still goes on, even today, just not as much. A lot of backstabbing went on, and you had your friends, but were wary of strangers, unless they needed help, something we all did as truckers, no matter who you were. And to finish this, here's C.W., describing, like the clip, exactly how it was. ( although, I don't remember the Army part) I sure miss those times, and we had a lot of fun. Again, the CB radio was king.

 

Didnt see any truckers with flip flops.

 

things were definately different and yeah it was harder in some respects...but compared to today...Id go back in a heart beat....

 

Hi rachi, oh, you won't see that. Matter of fact, I got a lot of "ribbing" because I wore tennis shoes. "What kind of trucker wears tennis shoes?", they'd say. It was all cowboy boots and "chain-drive" wallets.

 

Didn't see anyone that was 300lbs either.

 

Great video, No doubt they had to run hard. at least there wasn't any driver cameras, e- logs, csa, super coops. It looked like the trucker working on his truck at the beginning of the video was working on the diesel particulate filter.lol.

 

I guess those little white pills would keep ya skinny back in the day.