Trucker’s kindness vivid decades later
In 1963, I was 14 and one of four boys running away from home in Toledo, Ohio, to become surfers in California, probably a dream for many boys since the Beach Boys were popular then. I was escaping a miserable home life.
One of us returned home, but the rest continued. We slept in cornfields, walked mile after mile, cold and hungry. Then one late night in Indiana, on a dark two-lane road, a flatbed driver gave us a ride.
The driver, in his late 20s or early 30s, introduced himself with a big smile, “Hi, I’m Keith Ketchum!” When he pulled into a truck stop, he asked if we were going to eat. We declined, not mentioning that we were broke. Keith said, “Well, boys, you can have a spaghetti dinner on me.”
Words can’t describe how good that big plate of spaghetti and meat sauce tasted!
Keith was headed in another direction, but he gave each of us $2. For three penniless boys, that was a fortune then.
My first job was at a Toledo truck stop, where I put in oil, pumped diesel and washed windshields. I washed rims and looked over the rigs for details that needed attention, as if each rig belonged to Keith. My next job included changing tires at a Florida truck stop. After serving in the Marine Corps, I became a skilled tradesman.

If Keith is still living, I’d want him to know that every time I’m at a stop light and a big rig pulls up, I think of his kindness toward three hungry and cold runaways. God bless you, Keith, wherever you are.
R. GREG MYERS, Waterville, Ohio
— Trucker Baldomero Tapia tells the Dallas Morning News why a law is needed to prohibit texting while driving.
Do you use an electronic bypass system?
MARY CARPENTER, Childersburg, Ala. Floyd & Beasley Transfer
EDDIE PROCTOR, Decatur, Ala., Wiley Sanders
DAVID BOSWELL, Aberdeen, Md. | U.S. Army driver
JOE McLENDON, Iron City, Ga. | Trucks Inc.
MIKE ZAMORA, Austin, Texas | Leased to Frontier Transport
SHON OSBORNE, Ruston, La. | Leased to Schneider National
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