Retired truckers reunite, reminisce

Truckers have a simple measure of success: miles.
At a reunion for retired truckers Wednesday at Rhodes Travel Center in Cape Girardeau, the tallies were huge: 3 million miles, 4 million miles, 5 million-plus miles.

They are the meticulously tracked, sum total of a lifetime spent transporting loads over America's highways.

And the truckers are proud of it.

"Here's something you should remember: If you got it, the truck brought it," said event organizer Don Fadler of Cape Girardeau.

Fadler said he is not unusual in keeping every log from every trip he traveled. The stack, accumulated over 41 years, holds a prized place in his home and rises 6 feet in the air.

For the event, Fadler invited 125 area retirees who were either Teamsters or worked for ABF Freight Systems Inc. About 80 showed up for lunch, coffee and reminiscing.

One married couple at the reunion could boast the most miles driven between a husband-and-wife team. Don Seabaugh of Cape Girardeau hauled loads beginning straight out of high school in 1958 until he retired several years ago.

For the last 10 years of his driving he had a partner alongside: his wife, Lola. She had worked in offices and raised their two children, but she wanted to give the open road a try.

"When she started running with me, we'd been married 30 years and I told her, 'Now we'll be in that truck together 24 hours a day. That'll really show if we can live together or not,'" Don Seabaugh said.

But both said they enjoyed the partnership. They alternated driving every four or five hours, so they made better time than either could individually.

In total, Don drove 5,691,000 miles, aided by his wife on the last million or so.

The arrangement also allowed them to take in some tourist attractions across the United States.

"We saw a lot of country and did a lot of things we wouldn't have done otherwise," Lola Seabaugh said.

Most present at the event drove trucks for more than 30 years. Over that time, they said, the industry has seen a lot of changes.

Bob Ogles, who began driving for Swift Packing Co. in 1949 and later worked for ABF, said he's seen some significant improvements, especially in the roads.

"We had a lot of gravel roads back then. There were no interstates whatsoever," he said. "You couldn't cover distances like you can now."

And some of the roads were narrow.

"I can remember driving on a 7.5-foot-wide road in Illinois with an 8-foot-wide trailer behind me," said Clarence Kurre, who drove for 45 years.

Ogles and Kurre, both of Cape Girardeau, said they'd seen many technological improvements. Cabs didn't start coming equipped with heaters until the 1950s and most trucks had hydraulic brakes until 1955, when air brakes became the norm.

With the hydraulic version, "you hit the brakes just hoping you were going to stop," Ogles said.

Other innovations included the shift from gasoline to diesel, which gives better mileage and more power.

But the shift that revolutionized the way truckers interact came in the late 1960s and early 1970s: the CB radio.

"Before that, we'd wave or use hand signals or flash your lights, things of that sort. But the radio really changed things," Ogles said.

The men and some women who shared the road had a sort of fraternity.

"Back then, everybody out there driving a truck was a friend to everyone else," Ogles said. "We shared a lot of dangerous moments out on the road, and you had to trust each other."