Back in the day . . .

But there used to be thousands of mom and pop truck stops all over the country along with the few big chains. Just from where you are to to Cincinnati there was the old fuel stop at hwy 64 and Rock Barn Road in Conover, the old tire and fuel stop at 70 and Fairgrove Church Road, Sugar Hill, the old 76 at exit 24, and the eating joint across the bridge from that. Newport on 40, the old fuel stops at the Seviereville exit, Racoon Valley on 75, the other one just up the road at Lake City, stop at Corbin, and the unfinished rest area just past the Corbin exit and the big pull off south bound on top of Jellico, the old 76 at Clay's Ferry, the old 76 at Walton Ky. The remnants are across the street from the Flying J, and also Burns Bros in Florence Ky.

That's just the ones I can remember. There were lots of small lots to park in too.

 

We all have seen them, The newcomers to our industry, Misplaced tech employees or others that have lost their jobs in this so called recession who found a home after truck driving school with a large fleet and began their career in trucking. Bermuda shorts, Flip Flops, screwy looking headsets for their cell phones and laptops on their dash for whatever reason are all classic signs of the up and coming. On this particular trip one of them happened to have a C.B. and we talked for a couple minutes. On his way to California he told he wished he could just fly over Iowa and Nebraska, Its just so boring here. I told him why dont you just sit back and take a look around you a little bit, There really is a lot too see. He replied I dont see a #### thing! That turned on my memories.
I about 5 hours before had left Des Moines Iowa for Denver Colorado, By far my favorite run of all runs and has been for most of my working life. Now passing Grand Island Nebraska I began to ask myself why cant he see what I see?
I see Old I 80. in 1977, One of my favorite trips to see family in Colorado, I had the squelch turned down on the C.B. almost the whole way cause I didnt want to miss a single thing any trucker had to say. Had to of driven my mother nuts, It got funny when a couple of grain haulers were checking out my Mom and not hiding the fact they thought she was hot.
Labor day weekend 1980. The very first time I drove our truck all by myself fromPine Bluffs Wyoming to Exit 300 at Wood River nebraska. I remember telling my Mom "Nobody at school is going to believe this. She looked at me with a big grin on her face and said " Gary your Daddy would be so proud of you right now" Friends and family, You know how old I was then. My hands hurt so bad when we stopped but it was the biggest thrill of my life.
I see my Girl friend who is now my wife put up with me pre 1987 when we would go to Burger King On merle hay road in Des Moines on Friday evenings to watch Monfort of Colorados Friday push on I 80, Truck after Colorado truck heading to New York for Monday, They would always be through Des Moines On Friday evening like clockwork. I wanted to be out there with them so bad
I see the countless times my friends gave me their advice on operating a tractor trailer and let me drive almost always on I 80 in nebraska. I remember Hot Nuts showing me how to drive with my very first load of swinging meat by Grand Island Nebraska! In July of 1983.
I see Digbys Golden Arrow out of Denver Colorado, Remember?They put the arrow on the truck so the driver knew which way to go! Those awesome Jolly Rancher candy trucks with the big murals of the rocky mountains on the trailers. Or the Big Coors trucks with the long wheelbases and Curtis refrigerated from Greeley!
I see the legends too, Monfort of Colorado who had the left lane on interstate 80 nicknamed " The Monfort Lane" They were my heros! or Circle c beef company out of Colorado who did a pretty good job of keeping up with old Kenny Monforts trucks.
I see TNE express, Little Audreys Trucking, Best Refrigerated, ( the pretty red Kenworths ) Doc Radnors Midwest Coast transportation, and Noah Enterprises, All out of Nebraska.
I still See my friends heading west for Gradwell Transport and midwest Continental out of Sioux City Iowa and I see me at a young age trying to be like all of them.
I became a part of all this in 1987, Driving for Coors, The coors product had such a high demand in those days we couldnt seem to haul enough, I remember my wife, Just married for 3 months I dragged her kicking and screaming into this way of life, I remember her sitting next to me plugging in cassette tapes of Pink Floyd or The Scorpions or a tape a high school buddy made for me to keep me awake for just a couple hundred more miles, I remember my Wife holding my hand just because. I think she was just happy we could be together that much, I was too.
I see Blizzards and Tornados and wind storms along I 80 and I 76 that made you want to go home, And truckers that would stick together when the weather got bad and coach each other through so you could make your delivery on time.
I see Big old A model kenworths loaded with lights hooked to reefers coming out of Wyoming all alone late at night going to some ungrateful Eastern city and big old freightliner cabovers in various fleet livery with vans and flats behind them.
I remember the old Tomahawk truck stop in North Platte Nebraska, Now sitting under the Hampton Inn.I can still see their patrons, Truckers of course but then there was the locals, Ranchers whos faces looked like war maps but their eyes didnt look a day over 19 years old, Sioux Indians, The remnants of that once proud and fierce tribe now dressing in cowboy hats and wranglers.
I see my 3 year old Son peering out the passenger side window of my truck for miles and miles of Nebraska on one of our many hauls to Omaha or Des Moines. His Mom alway dressed him in those cute little osh kosh bibbies, I remember his gruff little voice saying I love you Daddy when I would stroke his hair. Now that little boy is starting to drive his old Daddy across Nebraska regularly. I LOVE YOU TOO SON.
I remember my little Girl doing the same thing except She would hold my hand and not let go until my fingers went numb, The difference was she would demand a hotel and a pool at the end of her day. Of course i gave in. The Holiday Inn At Ogallala Nebraska.
I remember a friend calling my wife and breaking down and weeping, They had just found his Dad dead in a rest area along I 80, He went to his sleeper and never woke up he said. I nod when I go by. He was such a good man.
I guess If you have a favorite place in the world mine would be I-80 in Western Nebraska and I-76 to Denver. Its the times and the people that made it such a special place for me and with a little imagination it could still be 1982 out there as very little has changed.
After my long pause on replying to the new driver I just didnt know what to say, I keyed up and said Ya I guess you are right. Just how I remember things.

 

bermuda shorts and flip flops.
I've been driving a truck since 1978, and I wear shorts and flip flops, so it's just not the new drivers that dress like that. We all don't want to look like we have lost our horse in the truck stop, or lost our Harley. Chain drive bill folds etc. You know what I mean.
Saw a guy once in WY at Cruel Jacks ( used to be a good place to eat now fast food. ) He was dressed like a Cowboy but was wearing tennis shoes. Reason he wore tennis shoes was so he didn't look like a truck driver. lol
I often think of what truck I started driving in, it was an early 50's model Bedford ( Brit truck ) petrol engine crash box, miss a gear, you pulled over and started all over. Metal box with cushion on it for a seat, back of seat was a piece of metal about 4" wide and curved with about 1/4 " of foam . Try driving all day in that, of course no power steering. Ahhh the good old day's. NOT. But, I wouldn't trade the memories for anything. Now I enjoy my comfort too much.
As far as the cb goes these day's I very seldom listen to it, and when it is on, it's squelched all the way so I could only hear you if your close to me.
Yes there was a lot more comradery back then unlike today, and I do miss that part of trucking, but every generation is different like our parent's could never understand us. We all started at the bottom, so someday the new breed will be the old timer's of the industry that I am proud to be a part of, and still enjoy my job after all these year's.
Bobber Truck stops. Gone
Dixie think all but one gone
Blue and White. gone

Be safe out there.

 

Great thread,I haven't had my memories revisited like this in a long time,still chuckling.I've been driving a semi since I was a kid,my own since 1974,still at it.I'm in my 60's,and I guess I'll sound like one of the old farts here,but it sure was fun back in the days,I couldn't believe I was getting paid to do something that was so much fun.Whole different ballgame nowadays,you really have to be on your toes.I posted pictures of my old trucks in the photo section,don't know if it's ok to post them again.Mods,feel free to delete if I erred.It really was a cabover world back in the 60's and 70's,esp. back east,because of all the 55' laws.When I bought that tan Eagle conventional new in 1977,it was one of the few conv.sleepeers running in Md. because of the length,was over 55' even with a 40' trailer,and a 200 wb.Md would bang me a couple of times a year,with there portables,$35.,overlength truck.Was running to So.Cal.(shakey,lol.) out of Baltimore regularly,had to run around the scales in Va. and Tn. every trip because of my length.Just the things you had to do back then to have a conventional sleeper and a comfortable ride.Truck had the factory 34" coffin sleeper,everynite you'd move your clothes and stuff out of the sleeper to the front,just so you could get in the sleeper,you had to crawl through the back window opening to get in or out.Always tried to park in a cross breezing in hot weather,and you could open both sleeper doors and let the wind blow through,lots of times I'd wake up and my pillow had fallen out on the ground.Built that black glider myself back in 1985,and was like whole different world with that big sleeper.
The things I miss the most probably,were all the great trucking companys back then.At one time or another I was permanent leased to PIE/Allstates,Consolidated Freightways,TIME DC,and others.Great operations that all bit the dust.Anyway enough of my ranting,keep on trucking,SAFELY.

 

What a great thread...

Secondi Bros. Truck Stop, exit 40 Milford, CT. Mayflower T/S next door.

Mass 10

Whites 76 Truck Stop, Raphine, VA aka The Beaver Pond.

The Buckhorn. Exit 34 I-80

The 76 at 159th St. Calumet City. Truck-O-Mat truck wash across the street.

Buckeye Lake Truck Stop aka The Lake House

Charlie T's across the border south, Bunnell, FL

Jarrell's aka Jarrelldines

3 axle tractor no brakes on the steering axle - from the factory. Then came "121" brakes

Compression release on a Cummins

Union 76 had a separate pump with "Super Diesel", Diesel / Kerosene blend.

Taking a bulb out of a motel sign and screwing in a plug so you could plug in your block heater

The big cloud of grey smoke when you ran I-80 past the GM plant in Lordstown...all the Anchor Motor Freight trucks idling in the yard created the smoke.

 

Yes, a great thread, indeed........

The Windmill, Dallas Pike, WV

That other TS down over the hill...anyone remember the name?

the Shenandoah, Old Washington, OH

bias ply tires

solid mount cabs

steering wheel as big as a flying saucer because of lack of power steering.

speaking of which..... center point steering

and the memories keep flowing....

company drivers using "scrip" to cross the New York bridges

walking around Sidling Hill service plaza with your toll ticket prominently displayed in your shirt pocket

double-breasted yamahas

the Dunes truckstop in lake station

 

how about waffle plates and bingo cards, trip leasing, canvas tarps.maybe getting 450000 miles before having to overhaul a cummins,snap rings comeing off in the 13 speed roadrangers,pinion nuts constantly comeing loose on the SQHD Rears?Virginia confiscating cardboard fuzzbusters,.running on channel 10,everybody picked on Big R. 6 dollars to cross the GW Bridge.Running the Ho Che min Trail?Charlie Douglass and the Road Gang,Big John Trimble At Jerrals Dave Sanders in Chicago That monster of a motor 1693 cat at 425hp

 

Convoys in a cabover. Nothing like trying to keep in the drafting sweet spot while reading the find print on the doors of the trailer in front of you doing 80 mph.

 

I started out west in '72.
'68 Freightshaker COE. Did line haul from Portland to SLC and back. I-84 was called I-80N and outside the cities, it didn't exist for the most part...just US 30.
Cabbage was called Deadman's Pass and was a switch back up the side of the mountain just like White Bird and Lewiston grade.
No air ride, just steel springs and a coffin sleeper you crawled into where the back window would have been.
We had 255 model AC...two windows down at 55mph. The doghouse had very little insulation so the heat in the wintertime was welcome, but come summer...oh boy!
And the noise of that old cummins made a radio useless.
But we were kids. I'd been back from my tour director's stint in SE Asia, so I was still invulnerable.
I marveled at the old timers stories of what REAL trucking was...now I are one.
hoodathunk!

 

Yeah,me too,still have an old atlas with 80N in it,remember when it was pretty much US30 all the way across Idaho,including going thru downtown Pocatella,and stopping at the Husky,up from Garretts terminal.Anyone remember the old Jubitz before the fire in the mid 70's?.Fuel was in the 30 cent range and if you had Jubitz mudflaps on your truck,you got a penny off your fuel,and if you had them on your truck and trailer,you got three cents off a gallon.Plus the flaps were free,they had a pallet of them lying at the fuel islands.Old Moe Jubitz figured it was good advertising.Half the trucks going then had his flaps,still have a set in my shop somewhere,JUBITZ I-5 EXIT 307.Also if you bought a 100gallons,you got a free ham and egg breakfast $1.99 value.Had nasty showers,though,they were in the old building across the street.Crazy bar.