TALKING WITH DAD

     Today was a lovely day.  I was sitting outside peeling apples for candied apples when my dad came up to the picnic table to sit and talk for a while. At 76 years of age, he doesn't always feel as energetic as he used to and it's been especially bad this week. He was a truck driver for many years, a job that he loved. He loved to travel; he loved to drive; and he loved to talk. He knows the roads so well, I call him my GPS because
if we ever need directions, we call and he can get us to where we need to be.
     It didn't take long for our conversation to turn to his reminiscences about his time trucking. He told me that he would take any load they gave him. Because of that, they would give him short runs that would set him up to take long runs.Many of his fellow truckers didn't understand how he was getting the good runs, not understanding that it was his willingness to do the small jobs that made the long runs available to him. There's a lesson to be learned there!
     His next story was one I had heard before. He was ready to get another load. They had a room where the truckers would go to a phone and talk to a dispatcher to get their next load. The room was full of truckers. They weren't picking up the phones because everyone that was going to the phone was getting dispatched on a short run. Dad had called a friend at dispatch and asked him what the loads looked like. His friend said that the next dispatch would be a long run to Atlanta from Michigan.
    Dad strolled into the room. Everyone was sitting around shooting the breeze. Dad asked, "Who's next for the phone."
     They all said, "Go ahead. There aren't any good loads coming through."
     Dad said, "You all sure. I don't want to take a load you all want."
    Their reply was, "Go ahead. Nobody's got a good run all day."
    Dad walked over to the phone, picking
it up, "Yep, alright, Got it."
    "Where you going?" the curious onlookers asked, sure he would get a short run.
    "Atlanta," Dad replied casually.
    They didn't believe him. "Your lying! You didn't get an Atlanta."
    He just walked to the window to pick up the paperwork. The man handed it through to him, but one of the unbelieving drivers grabbed them. "Let me see where you're really going!" Checking the number, he said, "Atlanta!" All the drivers were jealous and angry, "How does he always get the good runs." If any one of them had just picked up that phone first, they would have had that run instead of him.