“Gater”           

Joey, a boy of eight, lived next door to “Gater,” a big rig driver. Joey was fascinated with that man’s big fancy truck, parked in Gater’s yard, whenever the trucker was home after a long time on the road. You see, big rig drivers are often out for weeks at a stretch on deliveries; they travel thousands of miles.

Gater said “Hey Joey! How’s it going?”

Joey said, “Fine, Mr. Gates.” He didn’t want to be rude and call the man by his nickname plastered on the side of his truck, the name that other truckers called him.

But Joey wished so hard that Mr. Gates would invite him to see the inside of the big rig.

When they talked, Joey learned that “Gater” traveled all over the United States, delivering people’s furniture when they moved from one state to the next. Joey thought that “Gater’s” job must be exciting.

“Gater” told him of the time he saw an accident on a mountain highway in California when fog was so thick “Gater” couldn’t see his own hand when he held it up. A string of cars piled up and crashed through a guardrail because they were blindly following the lead car. When that car went of the road, all the others followed.

He told him of the night his truck was out of diesel fuel and his partner hiked up a tall hill to get the owner of the gas station to come down and sell them some fuel. “Gater” next saw partner Ralph in the moonlight, racing down the hillside with a pack of bloodhounds hot on his trail.

Then, there was the time “Gater” rented a room, overnight, in Biloxi, Mississippi and woke up to see the roof ripped off the hotel, leaving him staring up at the stars. A cat 5 hurricane had come through, leaving a shrimp boat tossed up on the highway.

Yes, for sure, “Gater” had some pretty thrilling adventures as he drove thousands of miles across America.

And Joey wanted to hear them all….