Stories From the Road: Times When I Wish I Would Have Done More

[Droopy]

I was driving across Pennsylvania on I-80 not long after I started my first trucking job. I was out in the sticks just cruising and enjoying the scenery. I was coming up on an on-ramp and a car that was driving up it suddenly came to a stop. A young woman hopped out of the passenger door and took off running the opposite direction. A man hopped out of the other side of the car and took off after her. To this day I have no idea what that was about. I didn't own a cell phone at the time so I couldn't call anybody. I could have stopped and I wanted to, but I didn't for some reason.

I stopped in a truck stop in northern Ohio one day to fuel up and grab a snack. When I was at the convenience store counter there was a young man in front of me who bought 90 cents worth of gas and then walked out. I mentioned something to the clerk along the lines of, "what's the point?" and the clerk told me that the guy had been crying. I walked out of the store and I could see the guy there in his car. There was a young woman in there with him as well as a baby and a toddler in the back seat. Nobody in that car looked happy. Since I've started trucking I've always had enough money except for one occasion, and then I was able to borrow it from my folks. I could have set those kids up with a full tank, some food, and some diapers. It might have been enough to get them where they needed to be. But I didn't do anything for some reason.

Some of you may remember my first female trucker student. I wrote a story about her and called her Cheryl. Cheryl was in an abusive relationship. She told me that the guy had only hit her 3 times in the 2 years that she'd known him. She said it like it wasn't such a bad thing; like it was something that all men did. I guess maybe all of the men she'd known had done that to her. I should have told her that she needed to get away from that. She was a trucker now and she could live anywhere she wanted. And she had the means to do so now that she had a decent paycheck coming in. I should have told her that good men don't beat on women. But I didn't say anything for some reason.

I was driving up a deceptively slick Minnesota highway one time. One of those black ice deals. A little Ford Ranger came up along side of me and I thought that he might have been going a little too fast for the conditions. The truck passed me and when it was about 50 yards ahead of me, still in the hammer lane, the back end broke traction and the truck got sideways. Then it caught traction again while it was sideways and only one thing can happen when that happens. The truck rolled about 6 times and then came to a rest up on the driver's side in the median. I did not stop to help for some reason.

The times that I have helped people out there outnumber the times that I didn't. And I do my best now days to not allow any more regrets to happen.

[tigereye]

1. seriously, you should have a blog if you don't already

you seem to have a gift.


:thumbsup:

[redqueen]

2. +1

I love reading these.



This one was especially good.

Thanks, Droopy. <3

[Droopy]

4. I appreciate it redqueen

Bono sucks! :D

[Droopy]

3. Thanks. I've written a lot lately

And I have another story percolating in my head right now. I would write it, but I better be getting to bed.

But I'm not always as productive as I have been over the last month, and I'm afraid that if I did have a blog it would go through times when it would be stale. I might go a month without writing a story and then write 5 in a week.