What can I say, ever since I was a boy, big trucks fascinated me. Other kids were into bikes, cars and stuff but there was something about the big rigs that captured my imagination.
When I was in my early teens I discovered truck models. The fact that I could build my dream rigs in miniature just fueled my passion. Now this was in the 70’s at the height of “truck mania” in the movies and on TV, with shows like Smokey and the Bandit, Convoy, Duel, Movin On and BJ and The Bear, so it was actually cool to like trucks. I remember a teacher asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I told her, “I’m going to be a trucker!” She seemed rather disappointed in my career of choice but to me it represented freedom.
I remember admiring my handiwork and thinking, “I wish I was a little man sitting in the cab of that truck.” Well, be careful what you wish for because a few years later, I was!
It wasn’t easy to get into back then. You either were born into a trucking family, you had to know someone, or, like me, you had to start at the bottom and work your way up. For me, that was starting as a swamper on furniture trucks when I was around 18. It was still a long way from driving them but at least I was getting to ride around in them and make money doing it.
It wasn’t long before one of the drivers I worked for asked me if I wanted to learn how to drive one, and buddy, he didn’t have to ask me twice. He was a crazy French Quebecer named Gaitan, and he liked to drink, a lot. So, he’d get drunk while he taught me how to steer and gear, leaning over the doghouse to smack me in the ear if I screwed up. My ear was red since I screwed up a lot. Mind you, I still didn’t even have my car license so I was an outlaw trucker before I even started.
Model of the Month in the September 1982 issue of Overdrive Magazine. I’d hit the big time….
So, here it is, 44 years later, and after at least 3.5 million miles, without any at fault accidents, it was time to hang up the keys.