Below is a portion of an August 14 David Brooks NY Times op-ed essay.
It sounds much like somebody we know.

He was 68.

He wanted to be a trucker since he was a little boy. Several years
ago, he calculated that he had driven more than 8 million miles.

As he talked, eating a dessert of sugar-coated strawberries, his love
of trucking infused every sentence. He had rebuilt his own vintage
truck from the radiator on back. He described the challenges of
hauling saltwater from the oil fields and huge turbines across
country.

Karl Marx once observed that ''Milton produced Paradise Lost for the
same reason that a silk worm produces silk. It was an activity of his
nature.'' Here was a guy who had found in trucking the activity of his
essential nature. I don't know what came first, the mystique of
trucking or the country music songs that defined the mystique, but
this trucker had been captured by the ethos early on and had never let
it go.

Rocky: \"Unless you\'re on wet pavement, or on a long downhill grade, you
take them brakes and put them near the rear of your rig,...now that way it
makes sort of a drag. You know, sort of like an anchor. Well, you may
burn up a little brake too, but you ain\'t gonna jack-knife and hurt no
poor motorist\".

Jim: \"Dad, c\'mon, let\'s go\"!

Rocky: \"You know I remember one time a while back,...oh my goodness, it
was like 20 years,...I flipped a sixteen wheeler on that grade coming out
of Sioux Falls. You know about a mile east of the summit,...

Jim: \"Dad,...let\'s go\"!

Rocky: \"I\'m coming Sonny, I\'m coming\"! Like I was telling
you,....you take them brakes,......

Brian
P.S. Thanks for the post, Joe.

"bcnmason" rig,...Well, you may burn up a little brake too, but you ain\'t gonna
jack-knife and hurt no poor motorist\".

Thanks, I passed that along to a trucking newsgroup... give them
something better to read than their flame wars.

Jeff DeWitt

joe wrote:

On Oct 3, 9:05 pm, Jeff DeWitt nc.rr.com> wrote:

Thank you, Jeff.
The newsgroup to which you refer is not known, but whatever responses
you pass along to here from that group of real truckers would be much
appreciated. I would also encourage passing along the responses to
Mr. Brooks.

"joe" truckers would be much appreciated. I would also encourage passing along
the responses to

Maybe you would like to meet some real truckers in the truckstop restroom??
Sounds like that's your bag, man.

joe wrote:

Hi Joe,

The newsgroup is misc.transport.trucking

They have some good folks in there but there are some serious flame wars
raging right now and there hasn't been any response to my post. If
there is one I'll pass it along, if there isn't in a few days I might
try reposting it with a new subject line.

"Jeff DeWitt" hasn't been any response to my post. If

raging flamers??

Anonymoose wrote:

Not that kind of flamers, just a bunch of childish idiots who really
should know better (and would NEVER behave that way face to face) going
back and forth insulting each other.

Jeff DeWitt