This blog, in addition my Exit Only column in Truckers News, has been in part devoted to the off-highway pursuits of the nation’s haulers. It’d be impossible for me to count the drivers I’ve talked to engaged in advocacy, trucking image-buiding efforts, music, arts, new-media activities and so much more. But the Wall Street Journal has just scooped me big-time by highlighting a driver pursuit that might be about as far away from your father’s downtime activity as is possible. At WSJ Online today is a story about what reporter Jennifer Levitz dubs an emerging trend in idle-time activity in the legions of truck cabs parked at truckstops, their drivers waiting out a restart, a deliver schedule, or the next load: quilting and knitting and other of the stitching arts. Featured in the story were a Don Hummer Trucking driver, Dave White — likewise with a video interview you can view with the story here — who bought a sewing machine last year as wait times between loads increased. His employer actually started a sewing club, too, in which drivers can show off their on-road handiwork at company headquarters.
Likewise, 37-year-old Kevin Abraham-Banks, among other drivers, showed up in the report with his “shaved head and dragon tattoos” and, wrote Levitz, his “cocoa and knitting” needles.
Which all makes me wonder what else I’m missing…. Let me know: tdills [at] rrpub.com.