Ramblin Man

That Allman Brothers ( I heard as I was driving) song always brings back memories of a summer I spent "ramblin" around with an original ramblin man. My father ( B.R.) came from a large family, he had several older brothers & sisters. I met most of them, a couple died before I was born. Mostly they were all responsible family oriented people, but he had a couple brothers that were true "free spirits", sometimes they would show up being the truck drivers they were, or sometimes they were in between jobs when they would stop by. When they were without a job B.R. would put them to work for while, until they decided they had enough ( money or work), then they  would be gone. Some times it would be for months, sometimes years.

One summer morning of my youth, the telephone rang very early, before the sun was up. B.R. got up answered the phone, told my mom to fix breakfast, he would be right back. I guess the call was from my uncle, as B.R. returned home he had his brother with him. My uncle Troy, as they were finishing breakfast Troy asked if I wanted to go along with him. B.R. said I could, so I packed my duffel bag and we were gone.

Troy was hauling frozen chickens for Tysons, from Arkansas to N.Y.  We made deliveries to Newark, N.J., Brooklyn, The Bronx, made it up and down the east coast for various other loads before heading back to Springdale, Ark. I got to see allot of the east coast, and places in between. Back in Springdale we got to tour the slaughter house and packaging plant as they were loading the truck. Another load going to N.Y. needs to be there asap.

As we were leaving  Springdale we crossed a bridge over the White River, " By God will you look at that" Troy says. By time I respond to his comment he has the truck pulled to the side of the road, has the truck in reverse and is backing his 53' trailer down an access road next to the bridge we just crossed. As the truck comes to a stop Troy says " we are going fishing". We walked a mile to a bait /grocery store, got hot dogs, ice soda and bait. Once back to the truck Troy digs out a cooler, fishing poles, tackle box, and lawn chairs. He must have had everything he owned stashed away in that cab over Freightliner. We built a bonfire and spent the weekend fishing, "guess N.Y. will just have to wait for their chickens".