10-4 Magazine December 2024

10-4 Magazine / December 2024 69 they had back then, especially when you consider the limited resources they had holding them back when going down those steep grades. Sometimes you had to do like the old song says, and go through Feather River Canyon, because Donner Summit was closed. In 1955, Wayne bought a brand new International Emeryville cabover and went trucking full time. He was hauling meat for Armour out of South Omaha, NE, to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and then brought produce back to Omaha, Kansas City, or Sioux City. In the winter, when the produce was down south inYuma, AZ, they would pay him $300 to come home empty. He ran that truck full time for two years, until he told his wife Cathrine he would be back in three days, after taking a load to Minnesota. But, when he got there, his dispatcher asked him if he would take a load of swinging meat to California, and it went on from there. When he got home three weeks later – not three days later – he was told he was done trucking and that she had bought a farm (but he never truly got out of trucking). Buying a farm outside Blair, NE in the early 1960s, it is still in the family today. When he was younger, Wayne had to help milk cows by hand on his family’s farm. His farm had beef cattle, which was still a lot of work. They built their herd up to about 2,000 head before getting out of the cattle business, but trucking was always part of the farm work for Wayne. In the late 1990s, Wayne’s son Tom and his family moved to the farm and Wayne sort of retired. I think “slowed down” might be a better description. At that time, Wayne moved to a place along Highway 75 outside of Ft. Calhoun, NE, just north of Omaha. Wayne remembers the people who started Little Audrey Transportation out of Fremont, NE. He told us the company was named after the founder’s daughter, Audrey. At one time, this company had six terminals and over 100 trucks. It was later bought by Emery Transportation Company in 1959. These companies, along with several others like Pirkle Transportation and Monfort of Colorado, were early refrigerated carriers that now have their own place in history. Turning 100 years young this fall (September 2, 2024), Wayne was still out there hauling grain from the field to the elevator in a Ford Louisville with a 20’ grain box! Although he no longer has a CDL he can still do this kind of trucking, being ag exempt, and is still able to help out on the farm a little. Over the years, Wayne has only owned one truck with a hood – a 1991 Peterbilt 379 – all his other trucks were cabovers (his favorite was a yellow 1979 Peterbilt). A friend asked if he could paint it one weekend, and then he went on and transformed it into the “Sugar Shack” you see in one of the photos. This is the one truck Wayne regrets selling, and his friend Mike regrets not buying. Back in the day, when I ran west nearly every week, I’m sure I saw this truck when Wayne was running it. Mike has owned Big Truck Sales in Blair, NE since 2018, and Wayne kept his toes in trucking by going and picking up trucks Mike would buy from the early 2000s until about five years ago. Now, Wayne will hop in and go with Mike when he has to pick up a truck. Mike said that Wayne is still the first one out of the truck, ready to help, with chains and binders, when he goes along. When I asked Wayne which one he liked better – farming or trucking – I had to chuckle a little at his answer. He said, “Personally, I don’t care for either one, but I had to make a living.” He has a work ethic that would be matched by few today, and at 100 years young, that is saying a lot. Thank you, Wayne, for letting us tell your amazing story and sharing the old pictures. With today’s modern trucks and conveniences, it’s hard to even imagine what trucking was like back then, but people like you help to keep that history alive. n