07/17/12

What It Means When a Trucker Says “Breaker..Breaker…1…9?”


Are your little ones going around the house, yet, saying “Breaker…breaker…1…9?”

Well, believe me—they will be, if they’re reading the Grandpa and the Truck stories.  Why?  They’ll hear it, in Book 1, Story 1 (every G&T book has two stories) and then they’ll mimic Grandpa (as younger trucker,) talking on his CB radio.

In that story, he goes along a fog-bound mountain highway in northern California, sitting high in the big rig. Up ahead, he sees a long line of cars following a ‘smokie’ (trucker lingo for policeman).  All the drivers believe they’re safe because they figure the police officer knows the road, well, and if they just follow him, they’ll be safe, too.

But that isn’t what happens.  No, instead, they suffer a major mash-up.

When he sees the accident (don’t worry—it’s not frightful), Grandpa gets on his CB (Citizen Band radio all truckers use) and calls out, “Breaker…Breaker 1..9” then waits for a response.

You see, when a trucker says this, he or she is asking permission to break into the conversation other truckers are having on their Citizen Band (CB) radios, on Channel 19.

Truckers operate in a very different world from the rest of us and my trucker husband and I (along with our illustrator) plan on driving that world home to all…. through the Grandpa and the Truck stories for little children.

After all (some of you know this already,) a big rig driver’s #1 fans are little kids.  They just love our trucks.

Now, they can ride along with one of the best who was a legend in his day.  His stories are those of all long-distance truckers, we they go about their difficult job of moving America’s products.

***So, the question is:  “Is your little one saying ‘Breaker…breaker..1…9 yet?”

Just wait—he or she will be. 

07/3/12

Art Imitates Life: A Trucker’s Life Is Often Based on Luck of the Draw

 

There’s an ad on TV, today, where a young woman named Monica pulls into a gas station (out in the middle of nowhere;) she’s checking herself in her mirror, and awaiting her turn at the gas pump (since it’s an isolated region, there’s only one.)

All of a sudden, the guy in front of her pulls away, unaware that he’s still connected to the nozzle and pump.  That sets off a chain reaction, as he uproots the entire apparatus and drags it along ‘til it hits something across the street (probably propane tank), precipitating a giant explosion.

Young woman watches, dumb-struck with horror.  She finally collects herself and sheepishly puts her car in gear and leaves, as the station owner runs after the perpetrator of the entire mess.

Message of this commercial?  Good thing this young lady drives a Corolla, for its great on gas…She still has enough to find another station…Another car might not allow this.

My trucker hubby told me this very thing happened to him when he was on the road, as long-haul trucker.  He’d stopped at a truck stop in New Mexico, was there for an hour or so, eating and cleaning up (after a long haul), then began to head out, west, towards San Diego. 

He was about a mile away from that truckstop when he felt the earth move and heard a giant explosion (you know, like the one in Hitchcock’s “The Birds” when the whole station flames up in a thunderous explosion.)

That night, on the news, he saw the very station he’d been at, earlier in the day…or rather, the remains of that station.  All had been blasted asunder.  And then he realized:  If he’d been even a little delayed… at any point in his journey… he’d have been in that explosion, sent to the Great Beyond.

A trucker’s life is often a collection of accidental and serendipitous events…We plan on telling them to a public that knows very little about that life.

Now, if you didn’t click on the first link above (gas station commercial), do so now…and if you click on “The Birds” link, you’ll even more closely realize what Grandpa averted…But again, it was sheer good luck (or maybe something more?)  You thoughts?  Had a similar experience?  Share, for all of us….

06/13/12

Nothin’ Worse Than an Arkan-san Trucker Speakin’ Spanish

There it is–looking oh so pretty, but pretty darned impossible to find if you’re a trucker not familar with Spanish… 

The dispatcher, Howard Jolly (I kid you not—that was his name), told my hubby he’d need to go to La Hoya…and that’s what hubby remembered.  Oh, my man was methodical and always prepared. 

Hubby’d been trucking for years and he knew to write down all of the addresses.  It was well before the time anyone had a GPS strapped to the dashboard. He wrote it as it sounded: La Hoy-a.

You see, truckers need to be attentive to details and find destinations on their own.

After all, it’s not like a trucker manning a big rig can pull that baby up to a corner and yell out, to any passerby: “Hey, fella (or ma’am,) do ya know where La Hoy-a is?”

No, siree, that won’t work.

Ok, so he went all over the region he’d been directed to, and he just couldn’t find La Hoya, anywhere.  It wasn’t even on the map, for God’s sake. He looked and looked.

Now, at the time, there was no Siri on the cell phone…No Google to look something up…No anything that takes “stupid” out of the equation. He was on his own.

Finally, on his third go-around in the general region of 12 miles north of San Diego, he caught a break.  Pulled alongside another trucker who solved the mystery for him. La Hoya was actually “Lo Jolla”…a Spanish word.

No, it doesn’t sound like it’s spelled—especially if you’re like my hubby–an Arkan-san (that’s not Arkansaw-an).

What did this experience teach trucker Paul Wesley Gates?  How very difficult it must be for Spanish-speaking truckers to understand American road signs.  They’ve got a whole lot more to process than he did with understanding that one town name.

Yep, this La Jolla  (pronounced La Hoya) thing gave him new appreciation for what his Spanish-speaking brother and sister truckers go through as they perform their jobs. And he salutes them everywhere…

“Hasta Luego, Amigos…”

***Stay tuned for the Grandpa and the Truck stories (first children’s book went to the printer yesterday—ready soon.)

 

05/18/12

“Grandpa and the Truck” Stories for Kids: A Tribute to the American Trucker

 

For latest updates to how we’re doing as we get the word out about Grandpa and the Truck Stories, scroll down.  It’s there, I give running updates…

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Truckers are key to the American Success Story. How?  They transport every product we use in our daily lives.

The “Grandpa and the Truck” stories focus on the career experiences of one of them.  Written for kids ages 4-8, they show what truckers deal with via Mother Nature, crazy drivers, and tough road conditions.

They teach important life lessons as well.

The stories are based on the career of veteran, long-haul trucker Paul Wesley Gates, one of Atlas Van Lines’s “Elite Fleet” of drivers who logged millions of miles without accident.

He drove the big rigs for 30 years, clear across America, from Canada in the north, to the Gulf region in the south, and from his home port of Rhode Island on the east coast, to Washington State, in the west.

And in that job, he became expert at many things: how to run a business…how to interact with people..how to deal with emergencies. He met extraordinary folks and faced almost-insurmountable tasks.

But he is forever grateful for a job that taught him much about life and exposed him to the wonder of America with its diversity, amazing geography, and the goodness of its people.

His stories are from the perspective of “Grandpa,” and they’re the tales he told me.  Then, I told them to our 3 grandchildren.

But make no mistake:  Grandpa’s tales are the stories of all truckers as they go about their business every day—moving America.

For that reason, Grandpa’s stories are a tribute to them all.

Colleen Kelly Mellor (author of “Grandpa and the Truck” Stories and wife to this trucker)