Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/457993
22 www.studentdriverplacement.com February '15 I t always starts with a cup of cof- fee…. Truck driver, Oral Bowden had grown accustomed to the blackout dust storms that would sweep over his truck, to the moving dirt drifts that would hide the roads under his tires. Oral lived in Mounds, Oklahoma and drove a truck for a grocery and hardware supplier. His deliveries and pickups sent him all over Northeast Oklahoma and Southeast Kansas, mostly staying between modern I-35 and I-44. The dust bowl conditions of the area in the late 1930s made truck driving a bleak job. Still, in that time, any job was a good job. He loved his driving job, the time spent in the quiet of his cab or stopping at lunch counters to share road stories with other truckers over a 15¢ pork chop dinner. Those pork chop dinners were a bragging point for the rest of his years. When Oral arrived to his drops, he went to work unloading and loading without much of a thought to his current sur- roundings. It was a hot spring day in 1939, and 2UDO·VUXQZDVWDNLQJKLPWKURXJK%D[WHU Springs, Kansas. He went about his work unloading groceries in the back of the store and was quickly ready to get back on the road. As he made his way WRWKHIURQWFRXQWHUWRÀQLVKZLWKWKH store clerk, a young woman caught his attention. Never to be a shy one, Oral in- troduced himself to Lavina Stephenson. She was a housekeeper running errands for the lady of the home, and it was dif- ÀFXOWWRVZD\KHUWRMRLQKLPIRUDFXSRI coffee. His convincing charm paid off, DQG/DYLQDVSDUHGDIHZH[WUDPLQXWHV away from the house to join him. ,·YHRQO\HYHUNQRZQ2UDODVP\ great-grandfather, Poppy. In September of 1939, he and my great-grandmother ZHUHPDUULHGLQ%D[WHU6SULQJV+H moved there to join her, spending some time in school before they joined the rush to California looking for opportunity as the war in Europe amped up. They eventually moved back to Kansas, and Poppy resumed trucking with Yellow until he retired. Poppy used to always tell us as kids WRNHHSRXUH\HVRSHQ,GRQ·WWKLQNKH ZDVMXVWWDONLQJDERXWWKHÁRZHUVKH was pointing out in his garden. +DSS\9DOHQWLQH·V'D\WUXFNHUV X |Feature | Truck drivers can Ƥ By Elisa Reed