Saturday, September 10, 2011

Of Trucks and my Dad

(photo taken while on the opposite road in Italy, on our way to Venice)

Would you believe that a big part of my teenage life were spent around trucks? My dad has retired from his work as a seaman then and decided to engage into a trucking business, later on a nipa hut business with own delivery to clients. At some instances he would personally drive one. I guess that comes with his want to always be out travelling and seeing other places. This would give us (mom and I at most) uneasy and sometimes sleepless nights.

That's mostly because trucks travel more conveniently at the wee hours of the morning --- no hassles of travelling around smaller vehicles, not much pedestrian or totally none - means less accidents and faster travel time too. The sleepiness however is a big factor. It is never a good thing to travel when one didn't have enough sleep earlier on. So we had to request daddy to hire a number of drivers to relieve us of the worry regarding his safety on the road.

In those years I got acquainted with a lot of parts truck though earlier on I knew some auto, bicycle parts - because whenever daddy tinkers with them, I get to be around and familiarize myself.

Of course, I learned stuff like disc brake, alternator, bug shield and  heater hose...that's one of the most common sources of coolant leaks in vehicles. These hoses allow hot coolant to enter and leave the heater core to heat the interior of the vehicle...they tend to be brittle and then they crack. I remember dad has to have those as spare ready especially when he's out to travel long distances. It was his habit of checking that everything is in place before leaving and travelling.

We had to sell the trucks when daddy got older...I'm sure he had his own memories of seeing different scenes and fields, meeting different vehicles along the way, having his own drive bys. The only difference with our drive bys is, I get to capture what I see with my camera, his; etched in his memories.



---
This is a true story written for a Bucks2Blog campaign .

6 comments:

  1. That's a wonderful experience with trucks. I have heard that trucking business is a good source of income. The family of my brother-in-law have this business but they have stopped the operation when his dad can't no longer manage it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. whenever I am in the road and we were in between trucks, I pray really hard.. in a way, I had this certain fear of big vehicles

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whenever I have car troubles, I make it a point to ask the technician about car stuff. I think it's a plus for women to learn how to repair automobiles and not only to drive them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I always thought that it will be cool if hubby can work as truck driver and we can go with him in his routes because I would love to see different sceneries

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know how to drive trucks but not this big:D LOL

    I think you have a lot of experience, travelling around with big trucks...

    ReplyDelete
  6. During my younger years, I wanted a truck beause it's big. Actually, I like a trailer but would love to drive a truck too. I find it cool for women driving trucks!

    ReplyDelete