Thursday, June 16, 2011

Long Distance Driver

Haiku My Heart
June 17, 2011




Haiku My Heart was started by my friend Rebecca. See more fabulous Haiku from all over the world at her blog, recuerda mi corazon.





Making a living
Attacked by white line fever
Long distance driver

International Harvester CO 4070A I drove this in the early 1970's for Labeled Metal Products

Some time ago, I posted a list of all the places I have worked since I got out of high school. You can reference that post HERE. I was going to go back and edit the list by putting an asterisk by each of the jobs that involved long distance truck driving, or, as it is commonly called, Over-the-Road Trucking. I did take a look and I saw that least 14 of my jobs were in this category.
If you use Einstein’s theory of relativity, that is, when you are moving, time is relative to the speed when compared to the speed of light. I'm actually a little bit younger than most folks my age.
The Grandchildren, on Albert Einstein's lap, Washington DC, 2008

Without trying to do a scientific explanation, the theory pretty much says that if you travel at the speed of light, you age more slowly. So, I take that to mean that traveling a portion of your life, although it is not the speed of light, it is a portion of that speed, and therefore, since I have logged over 2 million miles on the road traveling at 60-75 miles per hour, I’m younger than my 62 years, and younger than most people born on May 10th 1949 at 10:30 AM CDST.
Anyway, I’ve been on the road a lot in my life. Some of it for work and a paycheck and some for pleasure. I can say there is another category as well. The trip I did a week or so ago to go pick up a motorcycle I bought on Ebay was work, but not employment.
By the way, I never minded work. It was always employment that I couldn’t stand.
So, based on Einstein’s theory, I am a bit younger than many of you more sedentary people who need an act of congress to get in the car and head off somewhere farther than the grocery store. By the way, the speed of light is 299,792.458 Kilometers per hour or 670,616.629 Miles per hour. Even though, I still must pass the time I’m sitting there driving. After all, driving isn’t such a strenuous and focused activity if you’re on a freeway.


Driving a dump truck, 2001

I entertain myself in many ways. I listen to books or music. I listen to radio programs. I look at scenery. I think about a wide variety of stuff and I write in my head. At one point, I did have a mini tape recorder and produced many recordings of my thoughts or of stories that came to mind while spending time driving. Sometimes, I write music and musical lyrics.
I shared a song I wrote while on the road going to upstate New York in a recent post. Well, I wrote and edited a few on that trip. There must not have been too much happening on the radio and the CD player is cantankerous in the van and sometimes just doesn’t work.
I’d like to share another song I wrote. I wrote this many years ago, in the mid 1970’s. I was an Over-the-Road truck driver back then, for a job with pay. I wrote about it in this song. I polished the lyrics on this last trip and brought it out again. I used parts of the song in the Haiku for Haiku My Heart today. The rest is just poetry of some kind, I think.


Long Distance Driver
Pulled out for Atlanta
In an eighteen wheel rig
Atlanta to Ohio
Oh my load wasn’t very big
Never had a flat, no
Never touched a jack
Workin’ hard just ain’t my gig
I’m a long distance driver


Long distance driver
Really rollin’ up the miles
When you see me with a lady
All she ever does is smile
Never lift a finger, no
Never like to linger
I like to do it all in style
I’m a long distance driver


Arizona to Virginia
Truckin’ it a long long way
I keep my motor runnin’
Even when I’m out to play
DC to Minnesota
Back to Arizona
Never gonna go to LA
I’m a long distance driver


Got attacked by the white line fever
It grabs a hold of you for life
I wanted glamour and a reputation
All I ever got was strife
She married for the money
Now she calls me honey
That’s my wife
I’m a long distance driver


The Dump and Shortcake Band, Bruce on left, I'm on the right, Halloween in St. Paul, 1979


Dave on guitar, same Halloween party


If you click on the title of this post, you can listen to the original recording of Long Distance Driver. ( I hope this works, let me know, okay?)
That was recorded sometime in the late 1970’s by the Dump and Shortcake Band, which was/is Bruce A., drums and vocals, Dave C., guitar and Yours Truly, bass.


Peace

24 comments:

english inukshuk said...

curious!

(-:

english inukshuk said...

ah!!! all is now revealed. . .

and what a wonderful revelation

I'm loving the fact that you're younger than other folks your age

(-:

Snap said...

Love the Haiku and your story about long distance driving and age. I'm trying to figure out how I might use that *relativity* thing, too! :D :D :D

Meri said...

Oh my gosh -- the link worked. I'm so impressed by your tech mastery!

rebecca said...

good morning spadoman...i have been up since 4 bringing in the dawn. the garden is so full of allure my computer is a widow to the sun!

you are so full of intrigue, living more lifetimes in your 62 years than most!

next week haiku my heart will celebrate one year. thanks for gracing nearly every single one!

Marit said...

This haiku ánd your post really speak to me! My brother emigrated to Canada (we're Dutch) and worked as a long distance truckdriver for many years.... (I should write him soon! Thanks for the 'reminder'.) Enjoy your weekend!

Unknown said...

omg...this is the best post!! I LOVE your song and so cool to hear it as I read the post.

We're hitting the road next week to drive route 66 in Rebecca's direction.

have a great weekend!

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

"white line fever"

O, you restless guy, Spadoman!

Fran aka Redondowriter said...

How I love this post and your song is great. Couldn't link in Chrome but did in Safari. I'm one who does not like to drive long distances, unless someone else is the driver. I imagine it can be Zen like, however.

Noelle Clearwater said...

Hi Spadoman,
I love this post. I love thinking of you on the road driving a big truck for many years. I like to think of you as a traveling man in general. You are an adventurer and a seer of the world's great heart and soul in all its forms and vicissitudes. Your insights are often revelatory and I love this one as well. What a special and unique man you are to all of us. If we were a tribe, you would be the storyteller.
Peace with a heart,
Noelle

Spadoman said...

Wow, Thanks everyone. You folks are the greatest bunch of people in the world!

Inukshuk.. So glad you liked the revelation! Yes, we are younger if we keep moving!
Peace

Snap... Just keep moving, the faster the better. Thanks for stopping by Round Circle.
Peace

Meri.. Glad the link worked and glad you think I'm a wizard, but did you like the story?? Just kidding. Thanks so much for coming to my page. You're the best! (and still one of my favorites)
Peace

Rebecca... Can't ait for next week. I'll do something creative, novel and special for the anniversary. Yopu are way too kind with your accolades. I love you very much. Thanks for being here.
Peace

Marit.. I love your blog. I stopped there today! Thanks for stopping here. Glad I reminded you to contact your brother.
Peace

Stephanie... Get your kicks on route 66. Yes, we covered that one. Glad you liked the recording. I don't know what I'm more proud of, the song I wrote or the fact that I got it to work on the post!! Thanks for stopping.
Peace

Spadoman said...

MMT... White Line Fever, catch it! Hey, some do yoga, I do windshield. Thanks for your visit here.
Peace

Fran.. Yes, as explaimned in my comment to MMT, it is Zen like. It IS my meditation. Glad you liked it. Thanks for stopping and for the compliment.
Peace

Noelle... We gotta talk soon. Too many heavy things going on. Thanks so much for your kind words and fabulous insight, also for coming over to visit.
Peace

Dawn Elliott said...

WOW! This is so much more than just a Friday Haiku! What fun it was to hear about your penchant for driving, your song, and your theory on aging!

Spadoman said...

Thanks Dawn.., I like to tell a story. That's the main purpose I blog. Glad you approve. Thanks for the kindness, and thanks for stopping by.
Peace

Anonymous said...

Great post! Love the song.

All the best, Boonie

Rosie said...

How do you get an audio file in the title?

foxysue said...

Friday haiku and story always at this stop, as per usual something unusual. I don't have a head for all the 'science stuff' but I get what you're saying, you are younger than your years and definitely young at heart!

Have a lovely week, till next Friday then, cheers.

Ms Foxy x

Tim said...

Nice music. I've always put mine on ACIDplanet, so repeating Rosie's question - how do you do that? I'll probably spend the rest of the evening experimenting.

susan said...

Great story, Spado, and I love the picture of you in your itinerant rock star days. The song and the haiku are both wonderful. I'm happy to know you're younger than so many your age.

GYamato said...

Wow! Unexpected, fascinating, delightful. :)

Cheryl said...

I love your post, Spadoman, and I'm only 5 yrs younger than you, relatively speaking. I love to get in my car and drive. It was a favourite pastime of my father's as well. He'd pile us kids in the car, grab my mom, and drive up to San Francisco and turn around and drive back. Sometimes we'd go south to Santa Cruz. Sometimes we'd go east into the Sierra Nevada, I never knew where we were going but learned a lot of California and to love the road. I love the journey.

Christopher said...

Great stuff, Spadoman, honest, pristine, raw like beef carpaccio. No second helpings, I suppose?

Spadoman said...

Thank you all very much for stopping by.
My magical song was pretty easy. I went to Blogger "Help". There was a FAQ about how to post a song. It had categories for "From a website or URL" and "From your own files".
I used the From my own filesand followed the directions.
When you enable the box, by clicking on it, the next time you go to post on Blogger, there is a title area and then a place to put the link.

To link my audio files, In used the Mobile Me Gallery I have on my Mac computer.
I got lucky and it worked.

Peace to all, and thanks again!

Fran said...

Ha ha! Blast from the past!

a funky fun tune & band, but good thing you kept your drivin' gig to feed the kids & keep the wife smiling!

Love the pic of the grandkids on Einstein's lap