i still look back to when in the school holidays i would pray that my dad would take me out in the wagon . First experience was out in the north west as he drove for Smedleys foods running out of farnworth i lapped up running up and down the box wagon with box after box of tinned foods stacking them on the end ,Many a time swops were done with other drivers, so we always say had a varied diet. Dad seemed to detest going to Tesco as they would not open the doors unless he shouted Tate And Lyle which brought a speedy response.There then Followed a few years running for Parkers of Bolton in either an AEC or a Dodge which had the coolest airbrake cab noise you could have wanted ,This work was for all kinds of goodies from Barrs soft drinks right down to Southhampton ,I am not sure but i seem to think we stayed at Burts Cafe which was like a dormitory with loads of snoring drivers at it all night . also loads of steel up to Newcastle (bellingtons digs) but not sure sometimes loads of toffees out of a factory in Bury again all down south .I remember my dad saying old man Parker would go off his head if you did not rope the side boards across when empty . He then went working for BRS also in Bolton on general haulage and finally Markland scowcroft running steel tubes mainly north east ,I don’t know why but one night in the cab springs to mind (Sleeping on the floor of the cab freezing and parked under a clock which was chiming all night in Bury st edmunds ,Maybe some of you old hands ended up for the same punishment) Anyway great days and of course loads of wagon spotting of which now aged 53 i will be doing on Sunday at the Trans pennine run.
My kid was exactly the same, cut his teeth on F88’s late 70’s. He thought it was great having a wee against the back wheel, and not having to get washed very often! He’s 36 now and still comes to work with me whenever he can yet he’s never fancied doing his class 1
I was the same with my Dad,only 20 years earlier,went in the lorry from about 1953 until 63 when I left school,and still went when I was on holiday until I started driving myself. Went mainly on farm deliveries with animal feeds or to Avonmouth,Cardiff or Barry Docks to pick up animal feeds from BOCM or Spillers or whoever. Sometimes went to Vitamealo at Keynsham near Bristol for flaked maize. All good stuff,thats why I’m still a lorry nut in my 60’s with a lifetime in transport one way or another.Lets have some more. Good thread.
Cheers Dave.
From as long as i remember i have been mad on lorries(still am 
), knowing every make & model etc.I couldn’t wait to go with my dad on any journey no matter how short the journey . Before he got a sleeper i usually just went on ‘locals’ with him, then he got a F88 
& i went everywhere from Cornwall to Scotland 
,it was heaven for me as he was on general haulage & usually out all week I remember him stopping at the transport cafes & there would always be 2 or3 drivers that my dad knew- no driver ever sat on their ‘own’ at a table then 
, even the motorway services had there own ‘transport’ sections .As was the norm then any load possible was carried- all on flats of course & naturally i learn’t how to rope & sheet 
Then there was the old boasting rights thing , and mine were best when the old man got a new Transcon’- then he was ‘king’ of the road especially after i’d polished it … them school hols. were never long enough for me 
Definitely my happy days 
Yep,I rember them days,mid 50s till mid 60s,Dad used to drive an old AEC Manmoth Major,8 wheel tipper, leading lime & limestone out of Helbeck Quarry,Brough to far flung Middlesbrough and Scotland,20mph flat out,I used to love the Scotland runs, We used to leave Brough just before midnight and get back about teatime the next day, my bait was scoffed before we got to Carlisle,
The great “adventure” for me was when we were taking a load to the other side of Blairgowrie,we got as far as Beatock when the waggon blew a head gaasket,2 day job he was told,so we went in the cafe and he asked one of Smiths drivers to drop me off back at Brough whilst he stayed up there,Talk about trust,but it was like that in them day,
Happy Happy Days
Regards Brian
Here’s some pics of my lad when he was still too young to go with me, but the bug had already bitten.
I think it’s fair to say that a lot of us on here started learning the art of lorry driving from the passenger seat of Dad’s lorry, I started, as soon as I was out of nappies, in a Thames Trader & worked my way up to co pilot of an F88 290, I’ve probably been in every type of lorry that was on the road in the 60s/70s & I loved every minute, nothing would keep me out of the cab when I wasn’t at school, I even went to Wales with my Dad the day after I knocked my two front teeth out on a kerb after going over the handlebars of my Chopper, it was a bank holiday Monday & we went to Port Talbot Steelworks, first thing Tuesday I went to the Dentist & had my face repaired, I was ■■■■■■■■ 
I’m in these ‘happy days’ at the moment.
I was the same went with my dad in the 50s and 60 he mostly drove a variety of bedfords O types A types and he drove tippers for a while which were S types and ford 4Ds I Recall in I think 60 or 61 he came home with a brand new tk bedford having just given up a petrol O type well the TK was like something from another planet I thought it was the dogs my dad would get me up at the crack of dawn and in those days he would bring the lorry home off we would go and I would fall back to sleep very quickly and wake somewhere miles up the road and if it was winter would be freezing as don`t recall any good heaters in them old lorries , I then took my 2 boys to work with me when I drove lorries in the 80s but when I was on artics and doing distribution sitting at warehouses for 3to 4 hrs waiting to tip they got bored and stopped coming with me but my last lorry job was emptying bottle banks in the london area and with that there was no hanging around once filled up go to the glass factory in harlow and tip then out and fill up again my boys then would come with me at every opportunity and saturdays when I did overtime I had them in the cab for the whole 6 weeks summer holiday I loved it as much as them and their mum had a good rest, they did not go into transport however I did steer them away from that they are in computers earn loads and work 35 hour weeks very happy memories though.
I remember going with my Dad and also some of the other drivers that worked with him during the late 50s & 60s running stone out of the quarries at Buxton,at first he had a parrot nose Dodge with P6 engine and then after a while he was upgraded to a LAD D308 Dodge with Perkins 6.354 and eaton 2 speed.In 62 I left school and started as an apprentice fitter at the same firm and still went with him on a saturdays and when I had my hols(sad or wot) 
.I eventually got married and had kids of my own but my lad was never interested in lorries at all and he became a chef in the merchant navy,then at the age of 30 he took his cls2 without telling anyone and passed,12 mths later he took his cls1 and passed that,he is now 8 years later enjoying life on the road and slowly but surely introducing his own son into the world of trucking.I myself am trying to get my other grandson interested by taking him to shows and such,but as yet he’s only 15mths old
Me & my son in the local carnival about 1973.You can tell he’s not impressed.
JOHN.
.
Am another with so many great memories of being with my dad in the 80 /90,s . One funny memory was being with him one day and because he wasnt allowed pasengers because of insurence had to hide when near or in the yard ,he had to nip back to the yard for paperwork so i hid in bunk with curtains shut not a problem, but the fitter wanted to nip to suppliers and dads truck just happened to be there to use. 1 and a half later i get back to the yard still hiding in the bunk and desperate for a pee without being found . dad came back laughing his head off. didnt laugh when he found his flask full off truckers tizer thou . i could go on all day with happy memories
givover:
i still look back to when in the school holidays i would pray that my dad would take me out in the wagon . First experience was out in the north west as he drove for Smedleys foods running out of farnworth i lapped up running up and down the box wagon with box after box of tinned foods stacking them on the end ,Many a time swops were done with other drivers, so we always say had a varied diet. Dad seemed to detest going to Tesco as they would not open the doors unless he shouted Tate And Lyle which brought a speedy response.There then Followed a few years running for Parkers of Bolton in either an AEC or a Dodge which had the coolest airbrake cab noise you could have wanted ,This work was for all kinds of goodies from Barrs soft drinks right down to Southhampton ,I am not sure but i seem to think we stayed at Burts Cafe which was like a dormitory with loads of snoring drivers at it all night . also loads of steel up to Newcastle (bellingtons digs) but not sure sometimes loads of toffees out of a factory in Bury again all down south .I remember my dad saying old man Parker would go off his head if you did not rope the side boards across when empty . He then went working for BRS also in Bolton on general haulage and finally Markland scowcroft running steel tubes mainly north east ,I don’t know why but one night in the cab springs to mind (Sleeping on the floor of the cab freezing and parked under a clock which was chiming all night in Bury st edmunds ,Maybe some of you old hands ended up for the same punishment) Anyway great days and of course loads of wagon spotting of which now aged 53 i will be doing on Sunday at the Trans pennine run.
i’m another one who lapped it all up as a kid , i also remember my stepdad working for a short while for parkers of bolton . infact the first truck i went in with him belonged to parkers , i remember it because the first one we got into that morning was a day cab sed/atki that had clutch trouble , we were then given a sleeper cabbed sed/atki and we went to hull with a load of drums on a flat trailer . i’m sure the reg numbers were NBN 737R and NBN 747R or something pretty close .
Great thread this,
used to love trucking with my dad in the 70s/80s in the holidays,great days.never got and photos though,■■■■!
now the tables have turned and he came with me when i used to drive and wil be trucking with me on the trans pennine.
Without wishing to sound boring, i too spent most of the school holidays out in the lorry with my old man. Back in the 70s dad drove various makes & models on a mixture of tipper and general haulage work. All i ever wanted to do when i grew up was to be a lorry driver like my dad. Now ive been driving over 20 years ive really got the pox with it, but still look back at those old times and think they were probebly some of the best times of my life.
Now my own kids would like to come with me but surprise surprise health & safety wont allow it, so they only get to come once in a blue moon, but maybe thats a good thing? just in case it rubbed off on them like it did me!.
I remember when Dad did a favour for a mate of his,We went down to British Ropes at Doncaster arriving there about 5ish just as the crane driver who was on a flyer to some do or other was leaving,His gaffer made him load the lorry but in his “strop” he dropped a coil down hard on the lorry and broke a spring which ended up with a bit of verbal and Me and Dad walking to a cafe to scrounge a lift home again and leaving the truck there,I think the cafe was called the Red Brick?? or summat,heading out of Donny towards the A1 ■■,
First went out with my dad at 5 years old and yes, the school holidays were [u]never[u long enough!![/u]
Happy happy days, never bored in the holidays. Used to feel sorry for my schoolmates, who had nothing this exciting to do. Nowadays wonder if my mum minded being deserted, or if she liked the P & Q - must ask her.
Going in cafes and often meeting other drivers from dad’s firm (Fine Fare supermarkets), listening to tall tales from ‘the good old days’, the occasional breakdown, and two broken windscreens in his Leyland Buffalo!
Glad its all been stopped HSSE would never allow now it was wrong had a mate in my native liverpool back over his son so its a bit close
rayluv:
Glad its all been stopped HSSE would never allow now it was wrong had a mate in my native liverpool back over his son so its a bit close
In my day,when I was young my dad would tell me to stay in the cab,or tell me to stand well out of the way and not move.
He spelt out the dangers of lorries reversing and the chances of kid’s getting hurt,and he didn’t take it kindly if I didn’t do as I was told.A different day and age.
Cheers Dave.
What a great thread. I spent all my childhood with my dad, used to run out of castrol at stanlow mainly to croydon and rotherhithe great days. I remember staying in digs on the old kent road Taylors I think, kids were not allowed so they used to sign you in as a van lad. Then the the old fella got a brand new f88 still remember the reg JFY 884P ,that motor was the dogs wotsits. Ran all over the country with my dad and loved every minute of it,then it all ended in 1978 when I had to start working for a living. The love of trucks never faded got my class 1 at 22 and still driving now thanks DAD (still like to have that f88).
rayluv:
Glad its all been stopped HSSE would never allow now it was wrong had a mate in my native liverpool back over his son so its a bit close
Completley understand your reasoning for that statement as it was someone close to you and would proberley feel the same if it had happened to me… I went with my dad from as far back as I can remember and wouldn`t change it for the world… Ever opportunity I was in with him even when it was parked at home I was sat in the drivers seat driving my pretend day… Could tell you every lorry even if they were travelling in front because of the different back lights… Took my son with me every chance I had and him the same as me he learned the game from the inside out and is a fully qualified commercial vehicle fitter… But as soon as they dropped the age to get a HGV he took it, passed and jumped straight into an eight wheeler tipper and loves it…
Accidents do happen and sadly it is a fact of life but with the health & safety stopping everything the knowledge that nearly all of us picked up through father and son school of hard knocks and the old values will slowly disappear… I feel I was given the best training ever… More than the college man who ‘told’ me how a rachet strap worked on mod 1 of the driver CPC and looked puzzled when I said about a dolly knot… A what■■? Bless him…
rayluv… My heart goes out to you and your mate because it could have happened to me at anytime and is a sad fact of life that your whole prospectus can change in a second…