Hopes And Dreams

Today's Thoughts 6/30/12 Hopes And Dreams
By Jeff Head
The phone rings the other night, I am tired from the hard day I put in at the shop working on my truck. I answer it anyway as it is a friend of mine. A short time later, I am talking to a woman that needs a driver because the one she had just never showed up. I agree and find myself self crawling out of bed and traveling through the night and into the next day. I show up at a truck full of musical equipment that needs to be eight hundred miles north of here by eight the next morning. The deal was that I run safe and legal. A few words and the women stands behind me. I jump in and just as quick as I can, show up with the equipment for about a hundred and thirty young adults and their drums and bugle band.

I grab a few hours sleep, and we are off again with the full understanding that I arrive running safe and legal as soon as I can. But this second trip, I know a little more about who and what it is I have found myself working with. Maybe you have seen them in parades or maybe at a game somewhere. Drums and Bugles out on the field, marching in formation while playing their music for the crowd.

I have seen them a little closer, a family that lives and works together. A family that has the one goal, that show must go on. As I watch through some very sleepy eyes, this new world that I find myself in, I see love and happiness and youth and determination like I have not seen in a very long time from the youth of our country. They practice hard, work diligently and when one of them falls, I watched as others stood him up after he continued on despite the injury.

And so with a little help from this old trucker, they were able to make yet another show, jump yet another hurdle just to be told that the buses that transported them around were leaving without them. I know for me this came as hard news after what I did to get there equipment were it was needed, this kind of sucked for me. But can you imagine after all the hard work and practice that not only I watched them do, but they did way before I even knew them just to get this far; being told that tonight might be the end of it all. As I watched, their faces drop in despair and then my heart dropped twice as fast right along with theirs.

The local town here in Ney York came to the immediate rescue and this morning I find myself parked out back of a local school. The kids are still inside fast asleep with plans of waking up this morning, unloading my truck and hitting the field for yet another day of practice. They have absolutely no clue as to how or even if they will ever make another show, but yet they are not going to let that little fact stand in the way of that maybe show being the best show they ever did.

So here we are my trucking friends, finding ourselves with yet another chance to show the world that truckers have hearts too. These folks are not asking for a free hand out or even that I write this today. What they are asking for is buses. Buses that they are willing to pay for. Buses that will transport these kids around for the next few months so that the show can go on.

I hope and pray very much that the next trip in this truck I do is not one that takes this equipment back to the warehouse. If anyone out there knows of a busing company with buses that can help, contact me please. (404-307-9943) I will put them in touch of the proper people and with luck, a deal can be struck and the show will once again, go on. Let us not let the hopes and dreams of this very awesome group of young people be destroyed today. The strength and determination that I have seen these last few days is something that is very much missing in today's youth. Let us help keep what little remains in this country alive and well.

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