How do they do it in the summertime?

WESTSIDE — “How do they do it?” I wonder. It’s one thing to drive a truck during the hot days of summer, but it’s quite another to have a load that stinks pretty near to high heaven.

I’ve pulled almost every kind of trailer and hauled all sorts of loads - even without an air-conditioned cab during the hottest days of summer - but there is one load I don’t think I’d want to haul, and especially not during thehot days of summer, even with an air-conditioned cab.

I know it’s a job that needs to be done, but I feel for those who have to do it. I say this having followed cattle trucks, trailers full of hogs and some stacked with cages of live chickens. I may not have followed closely, but I was able to follow at a reasonable distance and survive. But how far back does a fellow have to be from a gut truck on ahot summer day in order to be able to bear the smell?

The other day a daughter and I happened to have the misfortune of being behind one such truck in the sweltering heat. We could smell it before we were close enough to see it. I tried to drop farther back to escape the stench but couldn’t seem to get back far enough. A detour and an alternate route home was the only thing that saved us from death by odor of ripe and slow-cooking chicken leftovers.

When meeting the trucks on the road - and there are plenty traveling on Highways 12 and 43 - I’ve tried holding my breath until the aroma behind the truck was also behind me, but there isa limit to how long a fellow can hold his breath before passing out and wandering into the path of another oncoming truck - probably hauling the same poultry by-products. I don’t think I’d want to be buried in chicken parts, and especially not in the hot summer months when their smell is at the worst.

So, how do the gut haulers do it? Doesn’t that reeking smell make its way into the truck cabs and air-duct systems? Are they, by driving fast, able to stay a few feet ahead of odoriferous most of the time? Is that why gut truck drivers always seem to be in such a hurry? Are they running from the smell? And if they drove slower, would that horrible odorswallow them up? I guess these are questions I really don’t want to answer by any scientific experimentation.

Is the pay good enough to endure the summertime odors? Is it by the load? The weight? By the mile? Or based on the rank smell, with summertime pay at a premium?

Does that smell get into clothing and the skin, kind of like it does for those who haul hogs or spend their time in hog confinements? How do wives and family members feel about gut truck drivers when they come home from a long and gutsy day behind the wheel?

Another question that comes to mind is whether police officers ever stop guttrucks for speeding? Do the motor-carrier boys crawl underneath the trailers to check springs, axles and brakes during the summertime? I wouldn’t be surprised if they, with one hand over their noses, just waved those trucks quickly on past any inspection points other trucks would have little chance of avoiding.

When I was over the road, I used to always hear CB jokes about chicken haulers, but it seems those who haul what’s leftover from those chickens truly have a job that’s going to the dogs.

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by e-mail at rmoll@ nwaonline .com.