Truckers Keep This World Turning
Hello, truckers… I appreciate you.
Thinking of the Freedom Convoy people as I write this, I am reminded of my trucking experience… and thought you might enjoy this story.
I grew up in Northern Alberta, on a mixed farm, the eldest of six kids born in 7.5 years… no wonder my mom had a loud voice! Initially, the only transport we had as a family was a grain truck. On the odd occasion when we all went to town on the same day, my brother got to stand between dad and the driver's door. Somehow all eight of us rode in the cab on the 70-mile journey to town! If I had been the parent in those days, that journey would have seldom happened.
Trucking and Farming
As farmers having a truck to haul your grain to town was the only way to get it there, and in the early days, the closest elevator was Grimshaw, Alberta, 100 miles to the south. The roads were all combinations of gravel and mud and soup holes or dustbowls, and if dad got two trips in a day, that would have been a very productive day.
In the winter, my dad had the opportunity to work with his brothers and haul mud, cement, and various drilling materials to the newly developing oilfields in Rainbow Lake, Alberta. I remember riding with him one trip, learning that grain trucks now had an opportunity to generate revenue in the winter, a welcomed opportunity to a farmers' cash flow.
Dad came from Holland, where one of the products they grew on his family farm was potatoes. Potatoes grew really well on our farm in Keg River, Alberta. Still, most consumers were far away from our farm and hauling potatoes from Keg River to Yellowknife (822 km) on gravel roads at 40 below presented significant challenges. The last year we grew potatoes, we ended up shovelling most of the crop out to feed the pigs, and the potato growing chapter ended.
The Opportunity
In the fall of 1982, I was helping to finish up the harvest and looking for my next job when my cousin said, “Patsy, come cook for us for the winter in Zama.” On day one in camp, there were six people, in week three in camp, fifty-five people, and by month three, there were 80 people. When Christmas came around, there were hardly any people to cook for, and the swampers had gone home for the holidays. This presented an opportunity for me to swamp on a picker and haul three loads of pipe to a drilling rig. That year I learned a lot about life in the trucking camp.
The following Christmas, there were not many left standing in camp, so once again, I got to drive a semi-truck loaded with three "dead" seismic bombardiers that we had to winch on the trailer. After we were loaded and got everything chained down, the driver, Gordon, said, just go slow, only use these two gears, I cannot drive anymore, and we will freeze to death if we don't keep heading toward camp. He crawled into the sleeper as I crawled across the frozen roads toward home.
My Appreciation for Truck Drivers
I spent four winters in the trucking industry in various capacities in the Rainbow Lake - Zama area, and I have a huge appreciation for the quiet way the people in the trucking industry, in my lifetime, have just kept driving. Recently at a funeral, Garry, another driver was recognized as a 2 million miler, meaning he had driven over 2 million miles in his trucking career.
Recalling events for this story, I most often remember the dark. In the winter of 1983, the rabbit population peaked, and on a bush trail one night, I saw hundreds on the sparkling white snow under the unbelievable northern lights. Another night, I had to run a hot shot of drilling core samples to Calgary. I left the drilling rig with the samples and stopped at home to whine about how tired I already was and that I needed to get these samples to Calgary by morning. With the trip being 1182 km one way, my dad offered to come and help me drive, for which I was most grateful. Sometimes you just can't drink enough coffee to stay awake. On our way home, heading back north, he woke me up to see the northern lights… wow, just wow.
One thing about living in the north in the winter, you learn to love the beauty you see in the dark.
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