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cleaned the grill. She took care of him.” The truckstop was destroyed in 1953 but rebuilt in 1955. It contin- ued in operation under the Doug- lases’ ownership until 1972. Alfred continued to grow the trucking business, owning as many as 26 trucks operating during its heyday. With Billy Sr. (1963), Bobby and Sonny (both in 1970) following in Alfred’s footsteps, he changed the name to Alfred Douglas and Sons Trucking Co. in 1984. Billy Sr. and Toni, who married in 1969 and started their own fam- ily a couple years later, took their children, still in diapers, with them. Billy Jr. was less than 6 months old when he started riding with his par- ents, and his younger sister Bridgette was a mere two weeks old when she got her first taste of the trucking life. “Even though we took our kids with us back then, we never want- ed Bill to get into trucking because it’s such a hard life,” says his moth- er. “But he grew up hanging around the shop, and he just loved it.” “His granddad was always slip- ping around letting him drive the trucks in the yard,” adds Billy Sr. Billy Jr. even got his first real truck-driving lesson in one of his grandfather’s Kenworth cabovers at TRUCKING TOTALS Name Years Name Years Name Years Alfred Douglas Mary C. Douglas Alfred’s brothers X 5 Donald White 50 2 40 56 Billy Douglas Sr. Toni Douglas Tom Harrison Bobby Douglas 47 10 12 28 Sonny Douglas Billy Douglas Jr. Total *Alf’s father and grandfather also transported logs by mule. age 14. Alfred believed in teach- ing trucking by hands-on experi- ence, and that applied even to his young grandson. “We went to town one day and when we got there we found out one of my grandfather’s drivers had just quit,” says Billy Jr. “My grandfather wanted to get the truck home, but he also wanted to get a haircut. So he told me to drive it home. I drove it 13 miles home.” Billy Jr. laughs as he remembers how shocked — and mad — some of the family members were when he pulled in. Sonny Douglas, who lives in Gaffney, S.C., and worked in the family trucking business for many years, describes Alfred as a man who believed in hard work but also had a fun side. “He was an all-out good person,” says Sonny, who was forced to retire from the road a cou- ple of years ago after suffering a stroke. “He could tell a tale and was fun to be around.” Alfred died in 1988, but the truck- ing company continued for a few more years. Mary Clyde, who is now 86, lives with her son, Bobby. Today, Billy Sr., who is 66, and Billy Jr. are the only two members of the family who still drive. Both are owner-operators leased to Lou- isville, Ky.-based Mercer Transpor- tation. They often haul from the Trane manufacturing plant in Pana- ma City, Fla., to Minnesota. Both father and son look back on the long road behind them with a sense of pride. “Trucking has changed a lot,” says the elder Billy. “The equipment is much better. I started when we didn’t have air con- ditioners in the trucks. I can remem- ber pulling up under a tree in Flori- da with the windows down just hop- ing you could get enough of a breeze to get a little sleep. I can just hear a driver today saying, ‘I can’t drive that truck, it doesn’t have an air conditioner.’” Both have embraced other tech- nologies that have made trucking easier with open arms. “The equip- ment is so much better,” the son says. “Cell phones and computers make it so much better to stay in touch with family. But people are already starting to take things like these for granted.” But they also long for some of the aspects of trucking that have changed. “I miss the mom-and-pop truckstops,” Billy Sr. says. “I also miss the days when you didn’t have to lock your truck.” The younger Billy, who married a woman also named Billie, loves spending time with his family when home, often scheduling his hauls to make his kids’ sporting events. His father, who is an avid hat col- Janice Hart, Alfred Douglas, Billy Douglas Sr. and L.V. Hart prepare to haul green beans to a canning plant in New York state in 1960. 22 TRUCKERS NEWS AUGUST 2010 lector with hundred of caps stashed around his home, says his real hobby is working. “[Toni] says I just create things to do,” he says, laughing. 38 21 304 COURTESY DOUGLAS FAMILY