I’m told my grandfather on my father’s side had a big truck and a trash route that he and some of my uncles would routinely service. I’m not sure how much of a role my father played on that trash route, being the oldest of seven. He decided to enlist in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War at an early age. He received a purple heart during a tour in Vietnam. Receiving an honorable discharge after being wounded in combat. This was in 1970 seven years before I was born, so he and my mother had time to party and do what newlyweds do. Being in Texas during the 3rd Industrial Revolution, you would be missing out on the money if you didn’t gear your career or business towards the mechanical industry or the Oil field. Since my Dad was so mechanically inclined, he just started buying and selling heavy equipment. This along with my mama getting certified in heavy equipment (more on her later) inspired him to start a company called “Young and Son Equipment”. I was only about 7 years old at the time, but I remember those gold business cards like it was yesterday. He also used to buy salvaged trucks and parts to rebuild a whole truck and put it on the road.

Not to be outdone, a young southern Louisiana girl before becoming a nurse my mother went to trade school to get certified in heavy equipment. This was the foundational training to being able to operate Cranes, tractor-trailers, and Buses. She became a school bus driver, and the kids loved her. I am sure her loving personality had something to do with it. However, I recall riding along and occasionally she would prepare finger foods for the kids. I believe that the nourishing Mama Bear quality that GOD gave women is the reason women dominate the school bus industry. Likewise, make great truck drivers! In my observation, it’s rare to see a woman truck driver in an accident. Mama never really cared much about the trucking business after about 10- or 15 years in. She dealt with it because it became their livelihood and when the money was good it was good. However, being self-employed isn’t as easy during a downturn if you don’t budget and plan for it. On top of that, she came to Texas a country girl fresh off a strawberry patch in Louisiana. This often left her longing for her backyard.  It was always trucks, engines, sleepers, and operating equipment. I mean it was nothing to see a  Caterpillar engine laying up under a piece of a lumber tarp, or a gutted-out 60 series Detroit sitting in a chassis waiting for the parts to do an in-frame. Not knowing she’d have to deal with it for another 20 years. That era left such an impression, even twenty years later with a backyard full of nothing but grass and my old 2005 Freight Shaker (that I don’t know what I’m going to do with yet) my kids still today refer to their grandmother’s house as “The Yard”.

Seeing as though ” The Yard” was a truckers hang out, Trucking even rubbed off on my grandfather (Papa) on my mother’s side. He also grew up on a farm in Mississippi. He became a dump truck driver and later went on to buy his dump truck.  I was too young to remember much of the details of his career. He parked his truck in the yard of the company he was leased to since his subdivision did not allow big trucks. I do remember that he kept a CB radio in his pickups. Papa also co-signed for the financing of my first truck in 2001, I was not ready or educated enough on the business side for that responsibility. I was starting my family; the money was good, and you couldn’t tell me anything. But you remember when I told you, that you have to plan a budget for rainy days? Well, I didn’t, but I’ve learned so much as a result and continue to learn.   Between that and all the cousins, uncles, and friends of the family who also have careers in the trucking industry is probably how I got here. I’ll share more on this in a future blog post stay tuned.