Old timers… I just love these guys. Full of wisdom and wit, their stories are sometimes a little hard to decipher between folklore and fact. But they’re worth listening to either way. These old timers often dress in pearl snap shirts and pressed denim, regardless of the weather, and their faces are weathered by years of taking whatever this world has thrown at them. The old drivers’ bodies have conformed or submitted to the shape that the seat and the wheel have demanded of them. Sounds like a rough outcome from a lifetime on the road. But ironically, we’ll all get there someday – if we’re lucky! This poem is simply an ode to the old timers in our industry, and how we’re likely headed in the same direction. It is NOT a denial or admission to which category I fall into – a young driver, an old timer, or maybe something or somewhere in between.
OLD TIMERS!
By Trevor Hardwick
He’s wrinkled and weathered,
From years on the road.
He’s quickly outliving,
The stories he’s told.
So he starts a new year,
Like the years left behind.
He still has a couple,
More gears left to grind.
His weathered old Kenworth,
Still gets ‘er done.
It’s like they were married,
And two became one.
With the road out before them,
And the world left behind.
They’ll travel wherever,
The highway will wind.
When he was a younger man,
He looked straight ahead.
He would not be bound,
To another life instead.
But he blinked his eyes,
For a moment, and then.
That same man attempts,
To remember back when.
The miles have a way,
To turn young men to old.
The highway will magnify,
Years that you rolled.
The diesel fuel runs through,
Your veins, as it will.
Your hands become shaped,
Like they’re gripping the wheel.
Your eyes become squinted,
From the glare on the glass.
Your nerves become hardened,
From a road-weary past.
But just when you think,
You might hang it all up.
You find you’ve got something,
Still left in your cup.
And just like the old man,
I mentioned before.
You’ll just keep on truckin,
For a couple years more.
With the good grace of God,
And a little bit of luck.
You’ll outrun your stories,
While driving a truck.