Hauling wood no easy chore
REMEMBER WHEN
Last time I mentioned hauling fertilizer then versus now. My dad owned a truck and for about six years he hauled fertilizer in the spring, gravel in the summer and pulp wood in the fall and winter. From 1952 until ‘58, when my dad was “truckin’”, they only had someone to load the pulp wood at a big wood harvesting site. Where dad hauled from, in West Chapman, they weren’t so fortunate.
I remember one snowy winter day when I was perhaps 4 years old, I rode in the truck with my dad. When we got to the end of the road prior to entering the woods, Dad stopped and put chains on the truck’s drive wheels. We then proceeded into the woods. It was slow going due to the snow conditions, but after what seemed a long time to my 4-year-old mind, we made it to the wood yard. Dad drove up as close as he could to the pile on the passenger side of the truck and got out. He loaded the right side of the body with the four foot wood by hand with an old tool called a pulp hook. After loading the right side he turned the truck around and loaded the driver’s side and chained the load down.
We then left the wood yard and returned through our tracks to the main road where he stopped and took off the chains and we proceeded to the rail yard where the wood was then transferred to a rail car, again all by hand, first the right side then the left. We then went home much to the disappointment of my then 4-year-old self.
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.
