Given my deep dive into all things “crackerbox” a year ago, the only reason I’m sharing this one with you is because of the occupants: Dad, Mom, and the two kids. I’m not sure where they’re off to; maybe his load is heading somewhere fun or interesting, or maybe it’s just a way to spend more time with the family. Your guess is as good as mine.
But you know this wouldn’t be happening nowadays.
I sharpened this rather faded shot up a bit; this is as good as it gets. One things for sure: there won’t be a lot of conversation, with that Detroit Diesel screaming right between and under them. My ears are ringing (more than usual) just at the thought of it.
I remember getting picked up by a Kenworth COE semi once, in the evening. I was hoping to hop in the sleeper while he rolled through the night. No such luck; he expected me to talk to him to help keep him awake. More like screaming, over the big hump between us, under which a Jimmy 318 (8V-71) was screaming back at us, and it was winning. My throat was sore the next morning, and I was dead tired.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the GMC Crackerbox and more, here.
Is that a Ranchero in the back?
Looks like one, yes.
Today’s state troopers would be licking their chops if they saw that drive by. It’s been said that if you don’t know how to drive a Detroit Diesel, just open the driver side door and slam your hand in it 2 or 3 times and then you’ll have it.
Paul, this brought back some memories. In my childhood, I rode with my Dad many times. In company trucks, mostly Western Stars and Internationals on day trips and then later in his own Ford CL9000 and series of Freightliners and Kenworths, sometimes on a Friday overnight to Vancouver and back. We took a few family “vacations” by going along for the ride, including my first trip out side of Canada to California via Washington and Oregon in a 1986 Freightliner conventional. At least we had a sleeper though.
As us kids got older, it became less practical and appealing and then eventually the trucking companies began to forbid even the owner operators from taking passengers.
And I feel your pain on the Screamin’ Jimmy between the seats . . . .
There’s an older couple at our church who married late in life (widower), and who both drove trucks at the time they married (this would be within the past 10-15 years). They spent their first year of marriage on the road… and are still married!
Maybe he needed extra help unloading his cargo. “Honey, you lower the ramp and Betsy, you operate the hand truck. I’m going for a smoke.”
The size of the steering wheel dates the image too.
I rode with my dad many many times when I was a kid. It was all hands on deck. On the dock, in the trailer, running the landing gear, opening and closing the trailer doors. This was back in the 60’s. Not a lot of palletized cargo back then. A lot of hand loading. The company never said a word, the dispatcher was a big shot in the company and they knew we were riding along. I learned to back up a tractor trailer into a dock probably 4-5 years before I could get a license. Biggest concern anyone had was when we were doing a liquor pick up or delivery. Drop a case of whiskey likely would cost you most of your weeks pay. I wonder now if the company was OK with kids helping because it was free labor. Dad was paid hourly so we probably kept the overtime pay down.
If you want to see more of this crackerbox style, check out the TV series Movin On with Claude Akins and Frank Converse. Their rivals (one of which was Rosie Grier) drive one most of the time. Great show, especially for on-location shooting and all the period cars.
In 1979 when I was representing Cummins Diesels, I called upon an owner-operator in New Rochelle, NY. The first time I stopped in, I met the wife and the children. They had a nice older home in a good neighborhood. They were a Black family working hard. Dad drove his tractor all over the country. Mom handled the dispatching work, working with several companies to keep Dad on the road. In the summer, the children took turns riding with Dad on two-week trips. This gave them more time with their father. Mom handled all the bookkeeping including the complicated fuel tax reimbursements. They were doing well with their union. The children lived well, there was a 1976 Buick Electra 225 in the driveway. I must add that the wife was a gracious lady. I enjoyed the visits to see them. To me, they represent America at its heart. Mom also scheduled his down time so that the family could be together.
The ‘Crackerbox’ was one of the more obnoxious trucks in an era when all large trucks were obnoxious to a certain extent. One could only hope the driver traded this one in on a new Astro 95 shortly after this picture was taken.
Uncle Don drove for Midwest Coast, and I’ll never forget what he said to me when I graduated and was about to head for LA: “Don’t drive truck- you get sooo buttsore”.
I drove a Freightliner FLD from 2006 to 2014 all over Oregon and Washington. Took my kids age 7 to 14 along many times, some where I have a picture of my 10 year old wearing his Tonka hard hat opening the grain hoppers at one of the feed mills I delivered to. Now he drives a LN8000 with an 6-71 and 13 speed delivering hay.
I used to take my daughter with me on swap runs she loved it riding up high in the Volvo that job came with but she was not permitted in the depot where the swap took place health and safety rules,
the current mob I work for doesnt allow anyone but inducted employees in our trucks,
My wife went on trips with her dad when she was a kid, as did her siblings. I can see where health and safety regulations wouldn’t allow anyone but a driver employed with the company to ride along any more. All three of her brothers ended up driving truck at some point, and her younger brother still does. My father-in-law is officially retired at 81 but he still keeps his Class A license up and still drives part time in the summer – usually dump trucks.
Whew ~
That noisy road oiler and no AC must have been brutal in Summer .
Kudos for taking his family along, many kids don’t ever get far from home .
-Nate