I was 21 years old and drove a 1976 Peterbilt Cabover, This truck had a whopping fuel capacity of 450 gallons, had a 15 speed overdrive trans and a 400 Cummins BC 3 engine. There wasn't very many ladies driving back in 1978 when I was. I drove for 3 years for Western Agriculture in Caldwell, Idaho. I hauled McDonald's French Fries out of Simplot's. I first drove on a sleeper team while I was learning. This was before the required CDL's they have now. On the day of my first solo trip which they were sending me to San Francisco, California, oh these guys were good at teaching me good lessons. LOL! The guys got me, my very own cap that said "How's Your Peter Built?" And yes, you bet I wore it! My boss sent me out knowing that if I drove and rested when and where he told me that it would put me in the San Francisco, California area about 3:00 in the afternoon, just in time for the beginning of the 5:00 rush hour! And that is what happened. I inched my way to my destination. OMG. But I did learn.
After a few trips like that, people started calling me "Mama Trucker" and Jeremy... they called him "Pee Wee Trucker". How funny...they called my truck "Play Pen On Wheels". I never drove the winter months, my biggest fear was of jack knifing. NOPE, NOPE!!!! Another big fear was getting a flat on my cab.
One trip coming back from California, I had to stop and pick up some huge plastic containers. At this place, they also made those plastic children's strollers they use at Marine Land in the shape of a Dolphin. These guys thought a lot of Jeremy and enjoyed playing with my little guy, so cute. They let him climb all over one of those dolphin, it hadn't been cut for the legs, no wheels or anything, just fresh out of the mold. Because Jeremy was having so much fun with it the guys decided it needed to follow him home. And that.... it did. For several years we would take that dolphin to the lake so I could push Jeremy around in the water, cause it floated. He played on it for many years. Thank You Guys!
Jeremy is the one in the photo above, he is my son, he is now 32. He was born June of 1977. He was a year old when I started driving. My little guy went with me every where I went...YES... Even on the truck.
My last trip was to California in 1980. I was coming back, 20 miles outside of Fallon, Nevada there is a little hill with a corner and at the bottom is a cattle guard. As soon as my rig got to the cattle guard it died right there in the middle of NOWHERE!!! There just happened to be a wide spot just on the other side of the road so I managed to get my rig coasted that far. There, Jeremy and I sat, not a single car went by finally about an hour of sitting there, another semi went by and I caught him on the CB, asked him to get a hold of a mechanic and ask him to come out, because I had a dead rig. A second one came by and I got a hold of him too on the CB also and asked him to do the same, he said he would. 3 hours we sat there, but my prayers were answered and the mechanic showed up. We rolled my cab up and he managed to get it running... Thank The Good Lord. The mechanic told me not to turn it off for any reason because it won't start again. THEN he told me that if I'm going to sit here for any longer that he advised me to lock me and Jeremy up in the cab and not answer the door to anyone, I asked him "why?", he went on to tell me that the weekend before there was a truck driver and his wife murdered and they had a little baby left there to starve. Guess what, I got the heck out of there and head straight for home. That was my last trip. Now there are hundreds of women driving. I have one other story to add to this but at a later day. It is a sad one and a long one to tell. I wonder if my son remembers ever riding in my truck for those 3 summers?
that is the cutest baby ever!
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