• We hope all of you have a great holiday season and an incredible New Year. Thanks so much for being part of the Practical Caravan community!

Old timers.

May 24, 2014
3,687
765
20,935
Visit site
Have you ever noticed when you start a new job, the old timers, wise beyond years seem to have a very dry sense of humour.

I remember when I first passed my HGV as it was in those days. Like every other new driver, getting your first proper job wasnt easy due to a lack of experience, and like many others I started with an agency. Having done a week or so on curtain siders and a similar time on boxes, I felt I knew enough to lie my way into a job. Turning up at a proper haulage yard one day (Matlock Transport), I was interviewed for the job. How long have you been driving HGV;s? Four weeks became four years. Had much experience? Aye, couple of years on curtain siders, year or so on boxes and a year on flats. Ah good, you've done flats. Can you rope and sheet? Gulp. Yes, easy. OK, go and sheet that load up properly and well see.

With mounting trepidation I approached the load, somehow managed to sheet it as if a child were wrapping its first present for its mother, what a mess. Then the ropes. I hadnt done it before, but I had seen it done many times and thought i could work it out. So, my best attempt at a truckers slip knot and gave an almighty pull to tighten it. The knot was no longer a knot and i catapulted backwards and down a grassy bank landing on my proverbial in the mud.
Then I heard that voice. "Hmmm, never seen it done that way before, try this instead".
Funnily enough, I got the job.

Later, having been sent to a farm to unload, I caught a very low branch on the farm track and cracked my windscreen. Getting back to the yard, I had to fill out a dmage/accident report for my unit. In gaffers comments he simply wrote
"Forgot to duck".
 
Mar 13, 2007
1,750
0
0
Visit site
yeah very true, but along with age and experience one does get to see the both the best and the worse side of a job, the humour comes from watching some new recruit doing a simple task in the most difficult and complicated way.
I remember being the youngest most inexperienced member of a firm and later in life the oldest most experienced member of a firm, the latter is much better, :lol: :lol: :lol:
I also Once remember saying to one of the OLD guys at a workplace [after some rib digging] OK so what exactly is your job. he replied "apprentice lifesman" what's that I replied, Well in about 40 years you will know, spot on.
 
May 24, 2014
3,687
765
20,935
Visit site
In a similar vein, it was the same when i started continental work. My very first run was to Gillette at Pero, Milan.

Luckily there were three of us going, and coming down of Mont Blanc for the first time (before the new motorway) I lost the others in traffic. I was OK with the journey, the only bit worrying me was finding Gillette at Milan and so decided that once on the motorway, I would press on and try to catch up. In those days I had no governor on the truck and could easily get 70 to 75 mph fully freighted. And this I did. After about 10 minutes or so, there they were in my mirror. Not my mates, but the blue flashing lights of the Carabinieri. Having been pre warned about the different Italian police, I knew these guys werent to be messed with. I pulled over and waited for the inevitable.
Out of the Alfa Romeo jumps this guy and my jaw dropped. As an ex Tom, we used to rip it out of the Guards, and this guy would have fit right in. Knee high boots with a mirror finish. Jodpur type leggings, aka German Officer with a pristine crimson stripe down the side. Immaculate uniform pressed and starched to kill. Sam Browne type belt in immaculate white. Shades on and he had even broken the peak of his cap so it sat Guards style over his eyes. And he walked across. This guy was big too.
He stared at me and said Inglesi?
Si, I replied. My only word in Italian at the time. He tutted.
You have been to Italy before? this in perfect English. No, I replied.
"youre first time? Si, again.
Do you like Italy? he growled.
Si.
"Then slow down, you will see more of it." And with that, he gave me one more stare and walked off.
 

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts