Any tales of desperation, trying to get home in time against all the odds? Overcoming loading problems, customs, ferries, weather?
How did it feel behind the wheel on your way back to your loved ones waiting for you?
Did you ever buy presents out on the road when it felt like a good idea but had second thoughts before you got home?
I bought a ginormous stuffed toy dog for my eight year old daughter at Botlek in Rotterdam thinking I was going to be driving my truck all the way home. In the event I had to leave the truck at Europoort and travel as a passenger on the ferry to Felixstowe, then by train to London, underground to Victoria and train to Dover all with this ridiculous orange and white dog under my arm!
Come on guys we need to hear your stories to brighten up this otherwise dismal Christmas tide!
I’m driving home for Christmas
Oh, I can’t wait to see those faces
I’m driving home for Christmas, yea
Well I’m moving down that line
And it’s been so long
But I will be there
I sing this song
To pass the time away
Driving in my truck
Driving home for Christmas
It’s gonna take some time
But I’ll get there
Top to toe in tail lights
Oh, I got red lights all around
But soon there’ll be a freeway
Get my feet on holy ground
So I sing for you
Though you can’t hear me
When I get through
Oh and feel you near me
Driving in my truck
I am driving home for Christmas
Driving home for Christmas
With a thousand memories
I take look at the driver next to me
He’s just the same
Just the same
Top to toe in tail lights
Oh, I got red lights all around.
I’m driving home for Christmas, yea
Get my feet on holy ground
So I sing for you
Though you can’t hear me
When I get through
Oh and feel you near me
Driving in my truck
Driving home for Christmas
Driving home for Christmas
With a thousand memories.
I take a look at the driver next to me
He’s just the same
He’s driving home, driving home
Driving home for Christmas.
For the last couple of years before retirement I had a 3.5 ton Transit for my little light haulage business.
1800hrs. Christmas eve “Brian, will you pick a pallet of booze up from storeage at Leeds/Bradford airport and run it down to The Cafe Royal on Regent St.London, you can name your price, it’s got to go, there’s been a ■■■■ up somewhere”
So off I went, got the job done, notes signed and I’m leaving Regents St. at 11:30pm Christmas eve. I’ve never seen the M1 so quiet, fell in to bed about 04:30 Christmas day.
Job paid well.
I’ve always been home for Christmas,but I remember leaving Manchester on Dec 30th with the the Crow and 2 more drivers.I broke down at Straelen with a compressor problem.It wasn’t possible to fix it,every Volvo dealership being closed for the holidays and so the only thing to do was get a replacement from home, Geoffrey’s wife Susan(trooper that she was)dropped everything, got into her car and set off to bring ot to me.I spent New Years Eve (which happens to be my birthday) alone on the parking at the Dutch/German border with only a bottle whisky and some cassette tapes for company,the rest having bleated"there’s nothing we can do and there’s no point in all of us waiting here" wished me a Happy New Year and then disappeared over the horizon in cloud of exhaust smoke.So at midnight I shook my own hand,wished myself a Happy New Year and got pleasantly ■■■■■■■■■■ problem).
Hi all.I remember in 1980 when i worked for Fransen in Holland.The week before xmas they had a load for the Nuclear Physics Institute in Bucharest,obviously non of the Dutch guys wanted to do it so the
‘‘old M.E. man’’ got ‘‘offered’’ it on a compulsory voluntary basis.I took my girlfriend with me.
After tipping on the 22nd Dec we were told we could load in Hungary on the 23rd or it would be after xmas.Obviously we went like the clappers to load.After loading we again went like hell to get out of Germany before the 25th.
On the 24th in Nurnberg my girlfriend decided she wanted to go xmas shopping at the big xmas market.Ok,no prob,but then she decided she wanted a tree for home.This was not so easy as i had a fridge and the tree was about 6ft tall.The only place i could fit the bloody thing was on the ladder on the front of the fridge.This we done,but all the way to Holland i was being passed by people hooting,waving and taking photos of me.
I dread to think what people thought of a lorry driver with a 6ft xmas tree attached to the trailer going merrily down the autobahn.Mike
hutpik:
PS.Tony.my birthday also happens to be on the 31st Mike
Cogratulations Mike and a “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” for the 31st.Have you ever noticed that more people have a party on our birthday then at any other time of the year.
Hi Tony.It’s only in these situations that you can say ‘and the same to you’ and mean it.
As to the party thing.Yes it’s true but not many of them have invited me over the years and the problem with this date is that when you get a present for xmas they have a tendency to say ‘‘oh thats for your birthday as well don’t forget’’. Take care.Mike
Hullo Tony and Mike,
I know just how you feel guys, my Birthday is on Christmas Day (74) this time round.
By the way Mike the old bloke that’s supposed to fetch me a pressie comes from your part of the World, does’nt he ? He must be getting old too, he keeps forgetting me.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Cheers, Archie.
I remember in 1990 loading oranges from Naplio in Greece to be delivered in Holland, I was driving this old 111 pictured below & after leaving Patras & legging it up to Holland getting unloaded I shot down to Zeebrugge & jumped into the cab of Derek Rance as a passenger My female companion hopped in with Mr Alex Ross & we merrily sailed out of the port on the last xmas eve sailing to Dover, whereupon Derek said He would drop us off in Bracknell where I was borrowing a car from, disaster struck on the 142 wagon & drag as we had a front wheel blow out on the offside, out we got on a very quiet M25 & with a couple of jacks changed the wheel & rolled on to Bracknell where I hopped into a little ■■■■■■ & shot up to Durham had a bacon butty with said ladies mother & was in The Rope & Anchor in Warrington for 2pm a little more road weathered than anyone else…
Christmases always seemed more fun in them days chasing home to get on the lash, now I’m middle aged & boring I can’t see Me chasing about like that no more…
Anyway all the best to You lot this was just one that stuck in my mind for some reason…
Hi Archie.It must be all those years of pure living thats enabled you to get sooo old .Have a good one anyway.
I’ll try a bit of semaphore as he goes overhead,maybe he will remember this time[you must have been good sometime ].
When i read everytime about another old driver thats fell off his perch i think that being a lorry driver in the ‘‘old days’’ was more hazardous to your health than being in the SAS[so obviously you weren’t Archie]. .Mike
fly sheet.Have a good one,hope its a bit warmer where you lot are. Mike
hutpik:
Hi Tony.It’s only in these situations that you can say ‘and the same to you’ and mean it.
As to the party thing.Yes it’s true but not many of them have invited me over the years and the problem with this date is that when you get a present for xmas they have a tendency to say ‘‘oh thats for your birthday as well don’t forget’’. Take care.Mike
Yes Mike,I remember the christmas and birthday present thing very well.Why did grown ups do that to us when we were children? Those kids born in June and July were far better off than us,although it must have been even worse for Archie.Anyway a very Merry Christmas and a happy & peaceful New Year to all.
when john willies mother died i said i would turn around in hungary and deliver the “urgent load that had to be in sofia before christmas”, so john could go home. got down to russe and customs got excited about the load of deoderant and perfume, managed to sort that out, got to sofia on the 22nd and got parked up for a week because the paperwork was mickey and there was actually twice as much duty to pay. christmas day in sofia wasnt too bad but come new years eve and i’m still there. decided to have an early night after finishing off a bottle of stackhouse special (roumo rum and coke) i was woken at midnight by the sound of cannons going off and guns being fired, i thought world war 3 had started. when i eventually got tipped couldnt get a backload for days, eventually got back to england about the middle of january. I also spent a christmas at the germans in ramnicu valcea, but thats another story (unprintable)
hutpik:
Hi Archie.It must be all those years of pure living thats enabled you to get sooo old .Have a good one anyway.
I’ll try a bit of semaphore as he goes overhead,maybe he will remember this time[you must have been good sometime ].
When i read everytime about another old driver thats fell off his perch i think that being a lorry driver in the ‘‘old days’’ was more hazardous to your health than being in the SAS[so obviously you weren’t Archie]. .Mike
fly sheet.Have a good one,hope its a bit warmer where you lot are. Mike
A balmy minus 15 here in Manitoba this evening hutpik it was breezy today so went to the indoor rink this afto but no sticks & pucks allowed
I have realised I live on a skiddoo racing course too they start off at around 10pm & use the front path as a ramp
hutpik:
Hi Archie.It must be all those years of pure living thats enabled you to get sooo old .Have a good one anyway.
I’ll try a bit of semaphore as he goes overhead,maybe he will remember this time[you must have been good sometime ].
When i read everytime about another old driver thats fell off his perch i think that being a lorry driver in the ‘‘old days’’ was more hazardous to your health than being in the SAS[so obviously you weren’t Archie]. .Mike
fly sheet.Have a good one,hope its a bit warmer where you lot are. Mike
Hullo Mike,
No mate I was far tôo weak and srawny to be SÃS . And 1 Chrismas Present I would have really liked was the Night Heater You had in your motor, when I met up with you, and you invited me in for a coffee. It was one of your Dutch motors. The motor was light grey and blue I remember, the Night Heater was a Fantastic Big Radiator, I would ,vê given the earth for that in my 2800 DKS. I am now sitting in 32c and looking forwards to tonights Party.
Cheers, Archie.
Hi Archie.That would have been NEDU as they were the only company i worked for who had radiators in the trucks,it was quite innovative fo the early 80s.
I’m also sitting here in 35c Have a good one.Mike
On the morning of Dec 19th 1996 I arrived at Katowice with part of a glass making machine from British Oxygen for St Golbain,who were bulding a new factory there,the other part was already there having arrived the evening before with a Dutch driver(Fred) who had his girlfriend with him.There was an Englishman from British Oxygen (Thomas) in charge of the installation.We put the papers into the customs and expected to clear that day or the next, leaving plenty of time to return home to Holland.Thomas said words to the effect "You’re joking aren’t you,you’ll be lucky to clear this year,these buggers couldn’t organise a ■■■■ up in a brewery,"and he was right, we were stuck.Fred rang his boss and was told to wait there.I called Roger at RJ and told him the problem,he booked me on a plane on the 23rd and flew me to Holland.If Fred wanted to go home had to pay his own fare and his girlfriends, and was really mad at his boss(can’t blame him for that).Roger phoned me on Jan 5th and told me we were just cleared and we got the plane the next day and unloaded on the 7th.That was very nice of Roger Dowsett,although Roger being Roger still made an extra profit.He charged British Oxygen demurrage for all the days from 21st Dec to 6 Jan,minus 3 for the holidays,but only payed me for 5.I don’t know what the plane fare cost,but I still felt like I’d missed out somewhere.
Hello Tony, as far as I can remember Roger always tried to get his lads home for Christmas every year, there is a story somewhere on Trucknet that I wrote a couple of years ago of Alan Morrey and myself flying home from Budapest in the early eighties. I think that I have also mentioned recently that I had to double up with Lennie Frost on the 2nd of January to travel back to Budapest to pick up my wagon which I had left in the Taurus Tyre factory where we had loaded. If Roger couldn’t get you a flight then he would ask you to get the truck home and give you the airfare for being out over Christmas.
Mike
Take care.Mike
].
.Mike