Cracker Box Ford – CL9000COE

It was 1986 on a dry summer evening on I-40 in New Mexico near  Albuquerque. Chuck,  the driver who had taken me under his wing and I were cruising down the highway when he abruptly pulled off on a wide spot off the road to “check the tires.” (This is slang for letting the water flow ) He then came up to my side, opened my door and said “Take the wheel. I’ll be damned if I’m going to drive all these miles while you look through the windshield and spit sunflower seeds!”
So I crawled over the “doghouse ” (engine compartment; this type of truck “Cracker Box Ford – CL9000COE” was referred to as a COE, or cab over engine) and got under the wheel. Being young and adventurous, I was eager to take on this new challenge. I’d been watching Chuck for quite a while, and if I may say, I am a quick study. The hardest  thing that I had to learn was how to “float” my gears. This is the art of shifting without using the clutch. From that moment on, I was hooked on trucking.
I will always be grateful to Chuck for all that he taught me about trucking and how to handle a rig. I still maintain that “old school” is the best school for some things.