Magazine / A Likely Story

  • “Mirror, Mirror On The Wall”

    Roger Clark
    May 2022
    Trucking down southwest Missouri highway 59, it’s a very scenic drive. And very narrow, in places. As I passed a northbound reefer, we actually touched mirrors with a resounding clack. “Are you okay?”, he quickly hollered on the CB. “I’m ok...
  • Fire In The Bay

    Roger Clark
    April 2022
    Now that the TSA is in charge of issuing hazmat certification, the training is simply three steps. First, determine the nature of an emergency. Second, take note of the wind direction. Third, run like your life depends upon it, because it probably do...
  • Nowhere To Go But Overboard

    Roger Clark
    March 2022
    My father wore a suit & tie to the office. By all accounts he carried it off well. But deep down he was an authentic river rat. He spent every available hour, and a few that weren’t, boating on the Minnesota River. From its source on the shores...
  • Pulling My Heartstrings

    Roger Clark
    February 2022
    It was a routine appointment with my cardiologist, checking on a plain old heart stent. They rolled me into the hospital Cath Lab without a rush, where I was padded, prodded, sardined, and packaged upon the table. Then they very routinely shut my lig...
  • “Wait For It”

    Roger Clark
    January 2022
    As you may have noticed recently since 1950, we wait for a lot of things in this business. We wait for showers, permits, pickup numbers, and cash advances. We wait in line for fuel, then wait to pay for it. We wait in line to scale, then wait in line...
  • “Cruise Control”

    Roger Clark
    December 2021
    I’m a big guy. I drive a big truck. I dream big dreams, and that’s a big deal, but some things can make me feel small in the blink of an eye. That would include the Northern Lights, red cliffs of Moab, and stars so close you could pluck them from...
  • A Likely Story - “Up, Up, And Away…”

    Roger Clark
    November 2021
    There are dozens of parallels between truckers and pilots. We each have Hours Of Service, Electronic Logging Devices, medical cards, and endorsements. In addition, we share the curse and blessing of dispatchers, managers, Safety Directors, and Compli...
  • “Person Of Interest”

    Roger Clark
    October 2021
    I read a news story about a guy arrested for murder, identified only as ‘person of interest’ now a ‘resident’ in a local county jail. I mean uh, correctional facility. After just a little digging, of course, we learned the sheriff was newly w...
  • A Likely Story - What Parking Problem?

    Roger Clark
    September 2021
    By Roger Clark I hear a lot about the parking problem at truck stops. But I don’t see it. What I do see are drivers—dozens of drivers—playing musical chairs every evening, looking for a parking spot. No matter the color, creed, sex, or politic...
  •  “The Woman Behind The Man Behind The Wheel”

    Roger Clark
    August 2021
    Country music legend Red Sovine recorded “The Woman Behind The Man Behind The Wheel” in 1977, a top-100 pick on the Billboard Charts. Already famous for “Giddyup Go” (1965), “Phantom 309”, (1967), and “Teddy Bear” (1976), “Woman Beh...
  • “It’s Funny Now”

    Roger Clark
    July 2021
    Driving for a large national carrier often leaves me feeling uncomfortably visible or unusually anonymous. I often appear to be the lead mouse, in our highway rat race, or completely invisible. Particularly on the scene of an incident or accident, it...
  • Shadows In The Night

    Roger Clark
    June 2021
    It was the pre-dawn hours in Charleston, South Carolina, and a wrong turn led to a deserted parking lot. Carefully working my 53-foot trailer around concrete curbs and lamp posts, I suddenly felt a giant shadow envelop the truck. Stopping the truck a...
  • “Road Test”

    Roger Clark
    May 2021
    Every driver applying for a job with any carrier is required to do a road test. Every examiner for a road test must have some experience. And finally, every manager tasked with road test documentation must be able to accept results that include ear p...
  • “Right Of Way”

    Roger Clark
    April 2021
    One of the most vexing questions in today’s socially-torn, economically unstable, politically fractured world is: who has the right-of-way? Is it the vehicle to our right, or a hundred-thousand-dollar Cadillac on your left? Is it a vehicle with the...
  • Teenagers And Trucking

    Roger Clark
    March 2021
     A lifetime member of OOIDA, I’m eligible for parole after serving a third of my sentence. That means twenty more years of listening to the controversy regarding teenage truck drivers. Personally, I don’t see a problem with it. After all, we alr...
  •  Funeral Humor

    Roger Clark
    February 2021
    Back in the early eighties, I moved into a metropolitan funeral home that had a small apartment. In less than a week, I had my first remarkable experience. It seems I had left a back door unlocked one night, and my boss had forgotten to advise police...
  • My Lucky Number

    Roger Clark
    January 2021
    An old timer’s story. The new paratrooper had never jumped from a perfectly good airplane and was just a bit apprehensive. “Don’t worry!” said the jumpmaster, “the static line will deploy your chute!”  But the recruit wasn’t convinced....
  • Giving A Shirt

    Roger Clark
    December 2020
    I was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana a couple years ago delivering a cooling tower to a university. It was July and that means hot and humid. It also means shade is a precious commodity. When the job site foreman arrived, I stepped out of the truck wearin...
  • Covid19 And Russian Roulette

    Roger Clark
    November 2020
    An editor I greatly respect recently penned an interesting, if inflammatory article. Well, okay a lot of what he writes is combustible. But this time he described Americans wanting to resume daily routine as ‘playing Russian roulette’ in a game w...
  • A Likely Story

    Roger Clark
    October 2020
     I’ve been to court a few times in my life, and it’s not like it is on TV. But then, nothing is like it is on TV, including hospital rooms, baseball games, the legal process, and trailer trucking. Just to remain grounded in reality, in fact, I�...