Chapter 1
I remember when I first thought about the idea of becoming a truck driver; it was in 1982, the same year my maternal grandmother passed away. We went down to her funeral that year. You see, my grandmother raised me in a small town in Florida called Hilliard until I was eighteen. After that, I moved up to Rochester, New York, and I have lived there from then until now. I have been wondering since I was in Job Corps, back in 1969, how to get into truck driving. One day, a friend of the young lady I was dating at the time told me about a school where I could get free training and how to get a grant to get into the school. I was accepted in 1982. That was the year my grandmother passed away. We went down to Hilliard for her funeral. After the funeral, we went back to Rochester, and later that next month, I started the class. The school was in a town outside of Syracuse, New York, called Lafayette. The next first few days were spent in class working on hours-of-service logbooks, which covered what hours of service were and had four sections: Off Duty, Sleeper Berth, Driving, and On-duty times. Then, we had hazardous materials and placard signs (you would need these signs to warn of the possible dangers of the load you had onboard). We also learned defensive driving, which covered the five smith system keys: 1. Aim High Steering, 2. Get the Big picture, 3. Keep your eyes moving, 4. Leave yourself an out, and 5. Make sure they see you. Along with the paperwork, shifting patterns and even a simulator were included.
After that, we started going outside to get familiar with the trucks; and I must say, that was something special for me. You see, up until then, I had never gotten in a big truck and sat in the driver’s seat! When I was a kid, I used to watch trucks pass through my hometown in Hilliard and listen to the sound of their engines as the drivers changed gears, leaving town until I could not hear them anymore, thinking to myself how much I would love to be one of them. I would even pretend to be a truck driver with the top of a trash can and a stick, shifting gears and steering like I was going somewhere. And now here I am, training to be a truck driver, really driving trucks for a living.
The teacher was telling us about all the gauges and controls on the dashboard. These trucks had so many gauges that I didn’t know if I would be able to remember them all if we were to have a test after this! And then he said, “CRANK IT UP!” I was like, what? And he repeated, as he looked up at me, “CRANK IT UP!” I was apprehensive about that, and I was thinking, what if something goes wrong? What if the truck started to move? What if it backed up into something? He was way down there on the ground, and I was up there; his face was only as high as the steps of the truck!
He assured me that it would be safe, so I started it; it sounded so powerful, yet it was under control. I was shown all the gauges and what they were supposed to read and where all the controls were located. And all fifteen of us, one at a time, got in and did the same thing, then went back to the classroom. At the end of the day, we all went back to the hotel, got something to eat at a nearby restaurant, and later went to bed. This went on for about a week until the day came when we would start operating these large trucks. We went out to the back of the school, where the trucks were, in a big field with all kinds of obstacles, to practice maneuvering the trucks in and out of and around each obstacle to get a feel for how the trucks handled and what to do to get them to go where we wanted them to go.
That went on for a week or so, and then the day came when we were going on the road! There were four of us in each truck with a trainer, taking turns using what we were taught in class and on the obstacle field. When I returned from a training run the next day, another truck from my class arrived, and we found out that a young lady was driving, and she panicked and ripped the stick shift right out of the transmission… wow. The day finally came for our school test; we had to drive through the city, making turns and backing into docks as if we were about to be loaded. We also practiced interstate driving and parallel parking on the driver’s side (which is called the see side) and on the right side (which is called the blind side). At about the end of my test, I was told to make a very tight right turn to get on the highway. As I was completing the turn, my right trailer tire ran over the curb… an automatic failure! I felt so defeated, but I was told to take that as my warning, and the state test would be easier; just watch my curbs! On the day of the state test, everything went well. I passed, I had completed my Tractor Trailer Training… and I was finally a Tractor Trailer Driver!
If you would like to read more about The Adventures Coolaid you can go to my dot com, coolaidnate.com and get a copy.
coolaidnate.com 