A ‘White Knight of the Highway’
TOWING THE LINE: Colourful character turns 66 today, but his stories are ageless
Today is a special day for Roger Mann. You don’t know him, but he is one of the most colourful characters I have ever met.
He’s also a commercial rig driver, grinding gears all over North America for the last 43 years.
Today is Roger’s 66th birthday. It’s a happy day, and yet, there is a sense of loss attached to this date, too.
Roger is not what you’d call a tall guy, but he is a giant in character. He has an expression for everything and everyone he has met along his path. He is the first one who would help anyone, anytime.
He’ll make you laugh in a heartbeat, and if you are silly enough to laugh often, then he will leave you begging for silence. The jokes are non-stop, inter-mixed with real stories of personal events, which he swears are truth, not fiction. None of us listeners really care, one way or the other. We’re just too busy gasping for air as we laugh.
Roger stopped driving a short time ago, as he and his family doctor discovered a few medical woes. Being a good person, he listened to his wife and their doctor, and had said issues looked into and attended to. None of the problems were/are mental, just physical, as this industry is tough on the body.
After the years he has put in, medical problems are not a surprise to any of his fellow drivers. Lousy food on the highways, long hours, and dwindling wages all added up, and he is now paying the price. He was towing the line, if I can use such a lame pun, but this is his payoff.
Today he is 66. Today, he had to turn in his commercial Class 1 air ticket. He can no longer, legally drive a big rig. He has three years to re-claim it but … well, let’s just say it’s like losing a part of your body, part of your very being.
Class 1 drivers are required to have a full medical exam, at the whim of the Ministry of Transportation and ICBC in order to retain their ticket. When we get over 65, it seems that dreaded government request comes yearly. We have to pay our doctor one hundred bucks, or more, for the exam, and the MOT give us 45 days to turn in that filled-in medical form. Doctor has to tell the truth.
Earning a Class 1 ticket is a privilege. When Roger first earned his, he was one of a special group of working men. He and all commercial drivers of that era were known as the White Knights of the Highway.
If a motorist was in trouble, he only had to wait for the first commercial rig to come down the pike, and he had help, or a ride to the nearest town.
Those days are long over. Today, commercial drivers are in too much of a hurry to stop and help out. Too many reasons and too little space to explain today. Maybe somewhere down the road.
Back to good ol’ Roger, and one of the funniest incidents he and I shared.
It was a beautiful early morning, and Roger and I were heading out to Deltaport with loaded containers of lumber destined for China. All of a sudden, Roger was passed by another driver from our very own company. No reason to pass, but the other driver did, and he also made a rude gesture to Roger.
I’m watching all this in my mirrors, as I am out front. Next thing you know, Roger passed that other driver. Shortly after all three of us pulled into the lineup at the port.
Roger jumped out of his rig, and walked back to the other truck, and started in a very loud verbal discussion with the other driver, who was at least 12 inches taller. I go back to break up this discussion, but as I get close, I can hear Roger and I see a look of fear on the taller driver’s face.
I could barely walk, I was laughing so hard. What Roger was promising, he would have needed a ladder to achieve. But, I managed to put my arm around Roger’s shoulders and lead him to my rig, and we sat together and discussed world politics till the dock opened for business. You had to be there. Too funny for words.
I’m going to miss those Kodak moments. Happy Birthday, Roger Mann. Sixty-six and never ever a dull moment.
I could fill a newspaper with stories about road life on the road, but why not share yours? Send them to Driving editor Andrew McCredie at amccredie@postmedia.com.