1.31.6 - Medora, North Dakota

I have to begin by apologizing for my lengthy absence. This new route-schedule of mine has me out on constant hauls between Washington and Minnesota, (17 of the past 21 days.) It has left me tired, cold, and missing Lorraine and the comforts of home terribly. The other day I was thinkin’ that I’d give damn-near anything just to be trading insults every day with the loading foreman in Longview.
The icy and snowy roads are slow-going and usually hazardous, and not only up north. Headin’ back to Seattle the other day, (I was damn near home) I got stranded aside I-90 for hours and hours because of an avalanche. I could have killed someone, I was so mad. Some days it seems I’m subsisting on nothing but crappy fast-food, caffeine and Ibuprofen. Last Monday, when I was at home for one day before headin’ right back out again, a neighbor was complaining to me about all the rain we’ve had here in the NW. I couldn’t help but think how nice that sounded: to spend days and days of rainy weeks at home, and only drivin’ from Longview to St Helens and back. The rain ain’t that bad y'all.
So it was just another day last Friday – I was stuck for a couple of hours at a North Dakota truck stop because of a Winter Storm Warning that had let us all know of impassible weather up the road ahead. I found myself sittin’ with a bunch of other truckers around a typical greasy diner-table, drinking bad coffee and complainin’.
It was a nonstop litany of all things wrong with life: the war in Iraq, not supportin’ our troops, diesel prices, the loss of "morals" here in this country, Illegal Mexicans taking our jobs, (I’m sad to write that; however it was discussed at length between this real hateful guy from Nebraska and a young kid outta Cleveland - I just clenched my teeth and kept silent) methamphetamine, child molesters, crazy people roaming the streets, our shrinking paychecks, Democrats, Republicans…I’m sure you get the picture. It wasn’t pretty. I was slowly gettin’ a massive headache.
We finally got around to the topic of the rich getting’ richer while the rest of us slowly kill ourselves just tryin’ to keep up.
“We really have only one political party in America today,” the kid from Ohio said, “the property-party, and the highest bidders are the ones who get their way all-a-the time.”
“You’re right kid,” I said, finally going on-record at our table. “And it’s not really surprising because our government likes to demand from us what it can’t provide itself.”
“And just what the hell are they demanding and what can’t they provide?” the Nebraskan asked me sarcastically.
“Well basically: meaning, motivation, and hope,” I replied. “And because they can’t provide this, ya got big-business, greed and the almighty dollar taking over everything.”
“Meaning...Hope?”, he shouted back. “Oh Gawd…You’re fulla crap man.”
I was ready to fire back some words that would have been only meant to humiliate and prey upon the asshole’s 8th grade education but fortunately, Sam from Minnetonka took the moment to break his silence too.
“Look fellas,” he began, “I happen to agree with some of this stuff and not agree with some. I could give a crap about most of it. My own biggest problem is that I’m worried about what I’m gonna tell my grandkids in a few years when they get older.”
“What the hell are you talkin’ about?” The Nebraskan’s redneck pivoted towards Sam and was going two-shades darker right before our eyes.
“I don’t know about you guys but when I was a kid, my granddad told me and my sister that we’d go to college, he told me I’d be much smarter than he was, that I’d have a bigger house, that I'd have more things – “sky’s the limit” my Grandpa told us. And I’m tellin’ you fellas, if you love your grandkids, and you’re really looking out for their future, and you’re gonna be honest with them; you can NOT tell them what my Grandpa told me – that I would have more from life than he ever did.
“Oh bullshit Sam,” another driver quickly reacted.
“I seem to remember you not being able to send your kids to college Bob,” Sam said with a glare in his eyes, “And how are they doin these days?”
While Bob looked down into his coffee cup sheepishly, Sam slowly started looking around the table at each us.
“Can any of you guys really afford to help your kids go to college? While we’re at it, will oil and petrol be around for them in twenty years? Can we keep building better houses & condos, better industrial parks and using up our natural resources,” he turned and looked straight at me, “like timber and such?”
He swerved back around to the rest of the table, “Can we keep ruining the environment with pollution and pesticides just to have more and more stuff?
“This is a bunch of typical liberal crap…”
“Shut the hell up Charlie,” one of the guys shouted back to the Nebraskan.
“And look what we’re making Charlie,” Sam said loudly. “Better planes, better guns and gases, better explosives – every improvement increasing the fear and hatred, and escalating the hysteria. Even the less-destructive applications of technology aren’t much better, and what do they result in? A never ending supply of gadgets and crap to buy?”
Charlie angrily grabbed his Cornhuskers-hat and headed outside.
“New things of stimulation that equate material possessions with our well-being and incessant stimulation with happiness?” Sam shouted out after him so that everyone in the place could hear.
I was now convinced that this guy was a truck-driving prophet.
“No fellas,” he said suddenly softer to us at the table, “I’m gonna tell my Grandkids the truth. God Dammit, I’m going to tell them they are going to have to do with less than I did. I’m gonna tell them they need to learn to simplify. That's the biggest problem in life today in my book.”
He stood and gulped down the last of his coffee, reached for his wallet and threw his share down onto the tabel.
“Thanks Sam,” I told him. “You’ve given me a lot to think about and something to blog about too.”
Sam chuckled, “Get rid of your computer pal. Simplify!”
I laughed for the next 50 miles.
Take care of things back home.
-Tom