My story with trucks probably started when my dad bought me metal toy trucks. I somehow believe it comes from the genes, because my dad drove jeeps and trucks with General Patton’s 3rd Armored Battalion during WWII. After returning from the Army he and his dad bought a KB-6 International flatbed and hauled coal from Kentucky to Tennessee. By the time I was born in 1953 he had sold the truck. I went to stay with a neighbor for a couple of weeks when I was about four or five. The husband drove for Pulaski Highway Express (PHE) out of Pulaski, Tennessee. He would bring home B61 Mack’s or GMC’s. I would wander outside and play on and inside the trucks. One day while sitting inside a B61 I reached up and pulled the cord and a loud blast came from the twin horns. That day was the last time I would get to sit inside any make of truck for a long, long time. From that day forward I was crazy about any large truck, but the B61 Mack was my dream. In 1961 my family was headed to Florida. We stopped for breakfast at a restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama. I was starring outside the window when I saw, sitting at a traffic light, a pink B61 Mack with lots of chrome pulling a polished reefer. I was mesmerized. When the light changed to green the Mack blasted off a sound of straight pipes and the changing of gears could be heard as the truck faded away in the distance. That sound and the changing of all those gears have stayed with me to this day. My dad took on jobs with Industrial Tractor Company, Cummins Diesel of Nashville, Super Service, and Mason Dixon Truck Lines. It was about 1960 when I rode with my dad to pick up a check at Mason Dixon. As I sat waiting in the car, out of the silence, I was suddenly shocked by the sound of an air starter from a B61 Mack starting up. That was the first time I had heard anything like that. Although it has been 47 years since the Florida trip, I can still remember perfectly the sound of the B61 Mack. When playing at home with my toy trucks, I would imitate the sound from that sunny morning in l961. I would someday hope that I would get a chance to not only sit in a B61 but to drive one. That dream came true when I saw a B61 for sale on EBAY in December of 2007 in West Tennessee. I called and arranged a trip to see it. I probably spent five hours looking at that Mack. As I was walking to my car to go home, I asked the owner if I could drive it. He agreed, with his guidance I drove it on his 18 acres of property. I was in heaven that day. I did not buy the truck. I told him I would probably regret my decision. I am still looking for another B61 close to Tennessee.
