Learning the Ropes

I really wasn't sure what to expect when I showed up for work at A-1 Plastic Supply in June of 1972, but after a few days of "observing" it was clear that there was more to being a delivery driver than I had anticipated.

The company was located north of the LBJ Freeway, and each day there were two delivery runs. The morning run was a counterclockwise loop around the west side of town and back up through the central corridor. Then after lunch (and reloading) it was time to hit the east side (mostly Richardson and Garland - occasionally Plano and Mesquite)... I also had to call in periodically in case there was an emergency, meaning that someone forget to file an order and when the customer called the salesman lied and said it was already out for delivery :-)

The first order of business in the morning (after clocking in and grabbing a cup of coffee) was to go through the invoices and arrange them geographically. (I had been provided with a Mapsco book - the delivery driver's best friend and constant companion before GPS). Once the route was established I loaded the truck (first in / last out) while double checking the orders against the invoices. Then I gave the truck a quick "once over" and hit the road... The whole process was expected to take about 15 minutes, and after a couple of weeks I had it down to 10.

The truck was a red 1970 Dodge D300 dually stake-bed with around 60,000 miles on it. Here's a picture  of a similar vehicle I found online:

The main difference is that the A-1 truck had a big canvas covered frame over the bed. BTW: There were no markings on the truck identifying the company. (They were kind of paranoid about competitors spying on them.)

Aside: The overall height of the vehicle was just shy of 11 feet. I found that out one day as I was pulling into a gas station. I noticed the attendant running toward me waving his arms and I had no idea what the problem was until I stopped at the pump and hopped out of the truck. He yelled "Are you f*cking crazy??" and pointed up... The station had an 11 foot high overhang and the top of my truck was almost scraping it... I definitely "dodged a bullet" on that one, and that was the last time I failed to consider the height of the truck when there was anything overhead...

 The truck was powered by the legendary "leaning tower of power" 225 cubic inch slant-6 engine. Now - although that was arguably the most "bulletproof" engine ever made, it was not know for power... In other words, the truck would barely get out of its own way :-)
Yeah - I could never figure out why anyone would order a truck that big with an engine that small. A trucks's gas mileage is far more dependent on weight and wind resistance than the size of the engine. As a matter of fact, when you considered that with the smaller engine the rear-end has to be geared so the engine spins a lot faster at any given speed it's unclear if there's any benefit at all...
Regardless, the truck was so underpowered that it wasn't unusual to still be going 45 MPH when I ran out of freeway on-ramp. (The solution was to stay in the emergency lane until I could get up to speed and edge my way into traffic.)

The transmission was a manual 4-speed with "bulldog low" (meaning that first gear would barely get the truck rolling before you had to shift). I was instructed to always use first gear (to reduce clutch wear). Later on when I joined the military I was taught the exact opposite: Never use bulldog low unless you have a heavy load and are starting out uphill... Go figure...

The truck did have two other significant problems: There were no turn signals and the parking brake would not hold the vehicle on even a slight slope.The turn signal problem was fairly obvious - someone had broken off the signal lever. When I complained to the boss he said he wasn't going to pay to repair any problem that didn't prevent it from moving... But it wasn't that bad. I quickly discovered that if you are driving a truck and you start "drifting" into the other lane people will get out of your way. :-)

The truck didn't have air-conditioning, which was an issue in Dallas during the summer. (The boss said it was for my own good because it's unhealthy to go back and forth between hot and cold all day.) Yeah - I typically drank 2 gallons of water a day and only needed to make one "pit stop".

But it did have an AM radio, so I got to listen to "Top 10" to my heart's content. In retrospect that wasn't such a bad thing - it was an excellent summer for music. The songs that immediately come to mind are Elton John's "Rocket Man" and "Honky Cat", and "Hold Your Head Up" by Argent, "Long Cool Woman" by the Hollies, "Don't Mess Around with Jim" by Jim Croce, "Brandy" by Looking Glass, and "Layla" by Clapton. And a bit of online research turned up "Alone Again", "Lean on Me", "Song Sung Blue", "Too Late to Turn Back Now",  "Stuck in the Middle With You", "Tight Rope" (Leon Russell), "Where is the Love" and "School's Out" (Alice Cooper)... Yes - I listened to all of them ... over and over again ... all day long, every day :-)

I'm still not sure where I'm going all of this, but there are lots more stories to tell :-)