United States of America
(Click on photos to enlarge)
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My driving roots go back a long ways, four generations, when my G,G,Grandfather drove the carriage for the Queen of England. My Dad spent his retirement years driving the big carriage on Mackinac Island for the Grand Hotel, (Early 1960's, Right Photo) |
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My career started on a farm in Pickford, Michigan. Most of my time as a kid was spent cleaning barns and tinkering with heavy equipment. I learned to weld and use an acetylene torch. These are extremely handy tools on a farm. My mom said that I wanted to drive big trucks when I was 5 years old. A great deal of the time was spent plowing fields in the summer, harvesting crops in the fall and plowing snow in the winter, with an old Oliver OC3 bull dozer, while wearing my dad's heavy coat and big boots. (2 pair of socks, sometimes 3.)
After graduation, I moved to Detroit, as the farm was being sold. There was not much money in farming in the 1960's, Dad retired. I spent the majority of the next 10 years doing construction, going to trade school and learning to be a heavy equipment/diesel mechanic. During this time I worked for many different contractors, building bridges, interstate highways and large buildings. In the meantime I got married, had 2 kids and went about the task of raising a family.
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My time in the construction industry was a learning experience, operating heavy equipment, maintaining and transporting loads in excess of 200 tons. This included nuclear reactors, huge beer tanks and lifting cranes. |
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During the early seventies the economy was not good in Michigan. We sold our home and moved to Seattle, Washington, in search of work. As luck would have it construction was good in Seattle. I found a job hauling heavy equipment and various commodities through out eleven western states and British Columbia, Canada as well as the Yukon Territories.
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I was making good money, but gone a lot, this was not for me. I then went to work hauling groceries for Safeway Stores Inc. and was home almost every night. Great job! |
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While working at Safeway, most of the time working nights, I kept my hand in the construction business. I started a little company doing work for home owners and small farms. I had a small dump truck, loader and equipment graveling roads, driveways, grading, landscaping and land clearing. I had 2 full time jobs, wow!
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During my 30 years at Safeway, I was lucky to have many new tractors which included International, Peterbuilt, Mack, Kenworth, GMC, Freightliner and one Marmon. I delivered to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
| I retired from Safeway in 2005 and my wife is retired from Verizon. We sold our home and farm near Seattle and bought a home on Camano Island about 100 miles NW of Seattle. Not far from Vancouver Island, BC. We now travel from time to time in our Monaco motor home, which has a 350 Cummins engine. Nothing better than a cool crisp morning, at a camp site, to have my wife start the engine as I stand by the exhaust and thinking of days gone by. |
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Last year (2006) we spent a month in Alberta, Canada around the Calgary, Edmonton area. Didn't know they had tornadoes there! Wow, just missed one.
E-mailed RTL Robinson's at Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and Cheryl Robinson responded with a very nice invitation to visit the Edmonton terminal, and for us to contact Dave MacNivin the terminal manager.
My impression of RTL Robinson's terminal in Edmonton was, "WOW"! What nice people, and had an enjoyable visit with Dave MacNivin. Found out that Dave also had worked in the grocery industry, in the Vancouver area. We toured their facility, took lots of pictures and was given a big box of memorabilia.
I spend most of my time now, tinkering around the house and the motor home, which is a mechanical beast.
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Could this be Bill, my son, the next generation trucker in this family?
Your neighbor, -------- Terry, Judeen, Vickey & Bill Izzard
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