So that means that most of the time, their dealings with law enforcement are of the state patrol or highwaymen variety.īut there are occasions where they end up passing through small towns and may have to deal with the local police. Large haul truckers spend the majority of the time on major roads, highways, and interstates. And given the ridiculously long amount of time that truck drivers have had to log over the years, it must seem pretty comical. “Comic book” is another term for the driver’s log book. It’s a way for truckers to show just how much they own the road.īecause when you’re in your Honda Fit and stuck on a three-lane highway behind three semis in a row, you aren’t going anywhere. ![]() If you’re a trucker saying this, then you’re getting ready to drive between two other semis at matching speed. So here are eleven quotes (and their translations) you might hear from a trucker: 1. After all, everyone wants to communicate effectively in their workplace. The popularity of the CB radio coupled with long hours on the road was fertile ground for truckers to develop their own language.Īnd they did just that. In fact, it was during the 1960s and 1970s that CB codes and “trucker talk” were born. He’d go on to serve in the role for six years.The Best Truck Driver Quotes Started with the CB Radio In 1986, he ventured into politics when he ran and was elected mayor of Ouray, Colorado. (McCall’s fellow truck-driving troubadour Red Sovine would record his own version of the latter.)Īctive in music until the early 2000s, McCall also became involved in environmental causes. A “Convoy” sequel, of sorts, “Round the World With the Rubber Duck,” peaked at 40 on the country charts, while the melodramatic “Roses for Mama” hit No. McCall’s later singles were met with varying degrees of success. “We crashed the gate doing 98/I say, ‘Let them truckers roll, 10-4,’” McCall says at the climactic finish. When the “bears” block a bridge in the Garden State, the convoy barrels right through. On their journey from California to New Jersey, they fought the law - and, this time, the law didn’t win. “The Rubber Duck” then was a cult hero and his fellow drivers, with handles like “Pig Pen” and “Sodbuster,” were rebels with a cause. A 55 MPH speed limit particularly rankled truckers, who struggled to make a profit amid high gas prices and government regulation. The 1973 gas shortage, subsequent price spikes, and long lines at the pumps had Americans roiled. 98 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Greatest Country Songs of All-Time - also contained elements of a protest song. ![]() Chip and I bought ourselves a CB radio and went out to hear them talk.”įor all its cinematic adventure, “Convoy” - No. “The truckers were forming things called convoys and they were talking to each other on CB radios,” McCall said in a 2011 interview. His daily ride, he told Dick Clark during a 1975 interview on American Bandstand, was a Jeep CJ5. While McCall knew how to talk like a trucker, he didn’t drive an 18-wheeler. But McCall released another song off the album: “Convoy.” The tale of a caravan of big-rig drivers led by “The Rubber Duck” caught the national consciousness with its vivid cross-country imagery and playful lingo - “Smokies” for the cops, “bear in the air” for a police chopper, “What’s your twenty?” for location, and, of course, “10-4” for “affirmative.” The track spent six weeks atop the country charts and hit No. The goal then wasn’t to record radio hits but to sell loaves of bread with country-sounding jingles.īlack Bear Road arrived in September 1975 and its title track stalled at Number 24. ![]() McCall in 1974 while working at an Omaha ad agency. 15, 1928, in Audubon, Iowa, as William Dale Fries Jr., Fries created the character of C.W. But the song and the CB radio craze it’d help inspire all started in an Omaha, Nebraska, office.īorn Nov. Released in November 1975, the spoken-word saga would top both the country and pop charts the next year, sell more than 2 million copies, inspire a 1978 movie of the same name starring Kris Kristofferson, and help add jargon like “10-4, good buddy” into the national lexicon. “Breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck,” McCall intoned in the novelty hit “Convoy,” a song that celebrated CB radios and the community of long-haul truck drivers who used them. According to his son Bill Fries III, McCall had been battling cancer and was in hospice care in his Colorado home when he died Friday, April 1. McCall, an adman who found fame as a country music singer with songs about 18-wheelers, including the 1976 crossover No.
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