Downtown Detroit crowds knew they weren’t routine traffic sounds when they heard “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful” and “Stop! In the Name of Love”
performed on air horns.
Alexander Pollack, Detroit’s city architect, got the idea years ago during a truckers’ protest at City Hall. Performing the “concert” during Super Bowl weekend were three International 8600s from Central Transport of Warren, Mich., each outfitted with 13 custom-built horns by Buell Air Horns in Lyons, Ill. “Our horns normally are designed to blow all at once, as warnings,” says Gary Buell. “None of our regular users are interested in playing tunes.”
You can hear a bit of the result by visiting www.npr.org and searching for “A Symphony of Truck Horns.”
TRUCKER GOES FROM GRILLE TO GRILL
For 25 years, Ray Lampe drove LTL freight around Chicago as a third-generation owner-operator. As competition got tougher and expenses climbed, he realized his options were limited. “My only skills,” Lampe recalls, “were driving a local truck in Chicago and cooking barbecue.”
In 2000, he shut down R. Lampe Motor Service, got a tattoo of a wristwatch set at 5:01, moved to Florida and started life anew as “Dr. BBQ.”
He teaches classes, wins cookoffs, sells sauces and rubs, and has written two books, Dr. BBQ’s Big-Time Barbecue Cookbook ($16.95) and the new Dr. BBQ’s Barbecue All Year Long! Cookbook ($17.95).
“I loved trucking and still miss the camaraderie,” Lampe says, “but it looks like I won’t be going back.” Visit this site.
BLESS US ALL
“If you sneeze while driving at 70 mph, you will travel 300 feet with your eyes closed.”
– Muriel Simmons of the British Allergy Foundation, quoted at Snopes.com
RELAX, LOITERERS
“If you were standing next to the water for an hour, you would get less than one-tenth of what you would get from one…
X-ray.”
– Southern California Edison spokesman Ray Golden, on radioactive water that leaked from a tanker in a Utah truckstop Feb. 22, quoted by Reuters
AVOID IMPULSE BUYS
“If you don’t have a business plan, you might as well go home.”
– Volunteer small-business adviser Fred Batson, who counseled a company driver to consider potential clients and revenue before buying a $350,000 truck, quoted in The Buffalo News
Have something for Channel 19?
Send it to Andy Duncan, Overdrive, P.O. Box 3187, Tuscaloosa, AL 35403 or [email protected]. You’ll get an Overdrive tag if your item is published.
