Trucks

This isn't about truck strikes. Just about trucks, and the trucks I have seen. They are very much part of our life here, even if you stay at home a lot of the time. They make their way through our town with little fuss and don't seem to get in the way and nobody takes notice of them. I suppose when I am sitting waiting for the kids at school I am a bit of a truck watcher.

I mentioned Slim Dusty in a previous post. He is an icon in Australia as a country music artist. He died a few years ago. I found this great clip about trucks in Australia, featuring a song called Lights On The Hill sung by Slim. I remember singing it as a girl I think.

When my Dad came home late when I was a little girl on the farm, I would look out for him, the latest nights were when he was out with the truck. I loved seeing the side of the truck going past to the shed, with the lights all down the side. Usually he brought me some chocolate covered honeycomb (not real honeycomb).

I also remember sitting in the truck beside him going places. I don't remember much now, but part of it stays with you somewhere in the back of your mind.

I had a camera with me back a few months ago, but was too scared to take a picture, of a truck parked not far away in town. It was a great looking truck and I wanted to take a picture as it showed a flavour of where we live. The most spectacular time I think was when there was the drought seeing the trucks with hay on them.

Often, I think in summer, some amazing old trucks come out of the woodwork. My husband and I love them. They are vintage, and speak of perhaps the war era. They have a distinctive style, and I suspect the people who own them couldn't see why they had to get rid of a perfectly good truck, and I suspect they are frugal and not always flash on cash. Who knows, but it makes me proud.

When I was first married we lived very close to a major highway. Not very far away and visible from our back verandah were the lights of the trucks stopped at a shop mostly around 10pm at night. I guess we breathed in a lot of truck fumes. I remember the sound of the brakes the most as there were a set of traffic lights there as well. I like this clip too.

These days we still have trucks about the place. Our new house has log trucks driving right past the front door. The previous owners put good fencing all around the house. Still it is a bit of a worry. The truck actually can be felt in the house. Our room actually.

The trucks also turn not far from where I park my car when I go grocery shopping. The log trucks that is, and thankfully there is a little bit of space between me and my open back door and where the truck actually drives, but I often look to make sure. This third clip gives you a bit more of an idea of the way they sometimes drive. Though you may be able to discount the first truck.

We have milk tankers here. If you have to go to the regional centre early you will always meet one coming to collect the milk.

In our hometown if you wanted to go to the regional centre, or the place of our practise seachange, this is mostly what you saw, and was normal to us then. We mostly drove on these roads, not normal 100km restricted roads.

The one I can relate to now, is this one by Jayne Denham, the country music singer. However, closer to home now, there are other experiences with trucks. We don't really have time to look at scenery. You have to be very careful, and always keep in mind that one could come around the next bend.

I can relate to the trucks in our immediate area more than the ones on the Freeway. They are more interesting. The ones on the Freeway I suppose, I have seen all the older ones, just like I know the sound of the older trains. We lived in an industrial area. At 11pm the shift workers usually woke our babies, and sometimes the trains were rather loud.




Driving across the Murray River during the drought.

Comments

A good essay about the trucks and your experiences with them. People whom have lived all their live in a big city haven't got a clue. I think I was lucky to have lived in the country on a property, it was different then here where I live now, so I like it too, it is still a little in the country! (but it changes now rapidly.)
Hill upon Hill said…
I love reading about your daily experiences. Can imagine it I think....
DeniseinVA said…
Very interesting, and I enjoyed this post on trucks. I will also go to the links when I get up in the morning. It is 1.19 a.m. here on Thursday morning, and so I am not concentrating very well :))) I did want to than you for leaving all the comments on my blog before I went to bed. I have just found them and hve answered them all I hope.

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