Back when loading a truck was really loading a truck
REMEMBER WHEN
The other day I was sitting in my chair at home and thinking. Yes, thinking, thinking about all the changes that have come to pass in the roughly 55 years of my recollection.
I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old, riding with my Dad in the truck he owned. We would stop at the store at the intersection of the Washburn Road and Route 1 for a Coke. At that time you got a 10-ounce Coke in a bottle for a nickel.
I remember when Dad hauled fertilizer from what was then called the Shur-Gain plant. Unlike today where a driver backs his truck under a hopper and the load is fed bulk-style to the truck hopper and in less than 15 minutes you are on your way with a 13-ton load, they used to back up to a loading dock and a crew of men would then carry bags of fertilizer onto the truck until it was loaded. This process took about 45 minutes from start to finish.
Then when the truck got to the farmer’s field, the driver had to unload the load by hand, by himself.
In later years, 1996 to be exact, I had the privilege to haul fertilizer with the new method. The trucks are newer and the unloading and loading are different and not so many man hours are needed to do the work.
Yes, things have sure changed, some things for the better and then again, some things not for the better.
Guy Woodworth of Presque Isle is a 1973 graduate of Presque Isle High School and a four-year Navy veteran. He and his wife Theresa have two grown sons and five grandchildren. He may be contacted at lightning117_1999@yahoo.com.
