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….