Happy New Year

Happy New Year to one and all. Have a very happy,healthy and wealthy one. Here's to another new of trucking.
Luke

Same goes here, Happy New Year everyone! Keep them Binders Truckin!

Happy new year to y'all too!
For those of you that think it is a great way to spend a new years eve at Times Square, NYC; think again. Feels like been through a meat grinder.
But now I atleast can say: Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Paul, glad you did it for ME! I do not like Crowds like that. I didn't even like New Orleans Mardi Gras , Way to many drunks! Hope you have had a good vacation!
Lloyd

No problems Lloyd. But I probably wouldn't do it again...
I don't like crowds either but I thought that this was a one time only thing so I thought I'd endure the occasion. Once there I kinda had to because there was no way out, no way to move anywhere.
The thing I remember most from the event is a family with small children and a very old lady that we fought for some space for. Atleast we managed to keep them from getting squashed, so I guess we did good enough...

It would be interesting to hear the elderly Ladies stories, of years gone by. Such history, she has seen in her life time!

It would be interesting to hear the elderly Ladies stories, of years gone by. Such history, she has seen in her life time!

Often you don't have to go that far to hear interesting stories from older people. Just think of my mother, born in the late 1920ies in Germany, in a province that is now Polish, grew up in the 30ies, chased away from her home by the Russian army in mid winter 45, doing all kind of stuff to survive and find relatives after the war, going through the post war build-up of Germany in the 50ies, marrying and moving to Sweden in the late 50ies, fixin' me to be born in 1960.... And then living 50 odd years after that too...
She really had some stories to tell. Sadly she now has an accelerating Alzheimer so the clear moments get fewer and fewer, but I always try to remember what she's been through whenever I think it's starting to get tough.
The morale of this is; Talk to your old folks, get their stories, and pass along all that vital history!

-Paul.

The favorite story I remember my Granddad telling (he was born in 1896) was in the 1920's he drove a truck and hauled milk to New York City. He told me that back then when the street light turned red, all of the vehicles on the street had to stop. Couldn't pull on up to the red light. Another story about his times was the family farm house had burned down in a thunderstorm. Granddad was pulled out of school after that to work the fields as his Dad had spent all their money to rebuild a house and didn't have money for a hired hand. Grandad only had a 4th grade education. Being a young kid had something to do with it I'm sure but I remember him telling of working a team of mules plowing and had stopped and was down at the creek goofing off so had gotten a rather harsh thrashing. MM

Back in the 1960's, I was doing the same job as Super John. I was a farm fresh face and full of it. There was s situation where I thought it would be interesting to ask an older grey-haired female, person of interest, about some of the interesting stories that had happened to her in her long life. Her name was Ruth and she was the daughter of a dairy farmer, she said. She had been a prostitute for over 40 years and apparently made some really good money. She lived in an up-scale neighbourhood and drove a Mercedes. Persons in the oldest trade are able to read other persons really well. it took her only a few lines to have my face red with embarrassment and I learned a big lesson. My life was boring and I was missing out on a lot. I left that job with the city after five years, and went back into the trade. The mechanical trades seemed so much more civilized with fewer surprises. I like playing with machinery and cold hard tools, and I have never been much of a people person, anyway.

Seasons Greetings.