Ran into an old freight hauler yesterday. Thinking remembering when Union freight was king.
Dyslexic ramble bad punctuation post ahead just a warning.
Freight hauler is old slang for union teamster driver terminal to terminal mostly some lay down runs where you always rest in hotel or years ago possibly company bunk house.
Or perhaps you get turns where you go out drop trailers grab set of loaded trailers and head back to your terminal. Anyway I ran into this friend at the local barber shop l walked in sat down and I heard dam man your still so skinny you could stand sideways in a shower and not get wet.
And coming across the barber shop grinning like Cheshire Cat to sit next to me was my old friend we worked at Preston 151 together they went under in 99 then we both went to U.S.F. Red star express they went under in 2004.
He jokingly started our conversation hey you still taking your girls to company yearly re - bid reason teamsters used to have cookouts and our daughters oh they were so young then would go and have cheeseburgers or hot dogs.
Yep I smiled i needed to get my money’s worth out of my union dues eat up kids I showed him pics on my phone i said they have grown into fine women and two of them are now mothers. I then said you know I should start taking the grandkids he didn’t know my wife passed we started catching up and the memories started.
I told him at 57 I’m still working I went to UPS buster brown as feeder driver / yard jockey working for healthcare and the cash. Plan was to hang it up at 62 or 63 Elizabeth and I when boys were out college. One son dropped out college enlisted in Marine Corps he graduates the island this month. Other son is going to local university.
Yet we talked on how union freight has died most recently YRC I left them in 2018 i told him. Two choices ABF freight or UPS was my two options. And i commented you know when I’m on I -81 and go past Roadway well YRC old terminal it’s sitting empty and then right up road is Carolina freight old terminal and then Consolidated freight ways when in that terminal.
And today former union terminals have non union LTL carriers in them. And I then said do you know JB Hunt took over the old Red star property they put a drop rail operation in there. So fucking sad in that in what used to be great union jobs where a man made good cash had good medical for his family had pension being paid into it’s all done.
Only two decent operations left ABF and UPS so I told him I’m glad that in this point in my life I’m glad close to closing it out and if i am alive in few years hang it up take my pension.
And my friend dropped a word I have not heard in long time Scab trucking he said deregulation was Carters idea but that fucking Reagan put it out there on steroids.
And he said can you believe the new leadership of teamsters met with that fucking trump. I said to him i think truly the end was also the 94 strike at one time when I started in 87 we had like 33 union carriers like 6 big ones and the the me too carriers think mom and pop operations DU community like Red star or New Penn or Penn yan or APA.
In that I think after the 94 strike a lot of these smaller companies just went out business. Reason union carriers would not adapt examples a road driver going to foreign destinations if freight was not ready that driver just sit around on clock getting paid. Non union carriers they’d put that driver to work busting freight until his load was ready.
I did tell him before I went UPS I jockeyed for Union grocery hauler and they had satellite operations down in Maryland 36 miles from my house. I would stayed there because it was solid protection teamsters were still strong in that company. But they moved operations to main facility and I’m not driving 82 miles one way work.
And sitting here at the kitchen bar drinking coffee thinking of the past I’m not upset I’m grateful in that and please do not take this as bragging I had a good run in 36 almost 37 years of union freight. Where else could a high school graduate make great cash Elizabeth and i both earned well.
As my wife Elizabeth was attorney and i told my bud yesterday Liz and I put our three daughters through local state university they commuted well the youngest then decided she wanted to go to IUP for education and she stayed in apartment yet no student loans. And now I owe my boy the same and I think maybe I should retire now and take a job like landscaper my one friend offered me a job with his company.
Then I think nah I’d be leaving cash on the table thinking I went back work last February after Elizabeth passed in November 2022.
And once again no brag this is how i think in 10 months I was couple grand short of earning six figures on the 2023 year. And my Polish grandmother I hear at times boy greed ruined the priest in my head.
And it’s me I’ve always been driven to provide for my family you need to work and earn diapers formula cost money. Your wife and kids depending on you and you know Liz and I were married 11 months we had a baby girl when I got discharged in 87 and I got job as union dock man for Preston.
My wife never complained over years me being gone maybe 24 to 48 hours on road I got my third class license through Preston then grandfathered into the CDL.
And as you become a parent all of your wants and desires dreams are put aside once you have children. And I smile because Liz always gave birth to chonk babies our three daughters our biological son was premature and he was so scrawny but today you could never tell he’s Bigfoot.
Yet I was looking at pics and home movies of our daughters and they were just butterballs babies rolls of baby fat. At our one daughter baptism Elizabeth was so tiny and holding our middle daughter and I remember her saying afterwards on that day here hold Michelle.
There is something to breast feeding children and plump kids and you know here is another memory with my wife helping her give milk when she breast fed with breast pumps.
I do miss her deeply she gave us so much and together we were loving and kind dedicated to each other and our children I am so fortunate even today Liz’s legacy lives on through our grandchildren.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Best saying ever! Funny thing, once you hold those children in your arms, those wants, desires, and dreams kinda don’t seem so important any more. Then you blink and they’re all grown up.
Good morning Duncanpup. 
Our memories stay with, in part, because once something happens, it becomes a memory of one kind or another.
