Well, most of us out on the highway know truckers, who drive 18-wheelers or semitrailer trucks, talk. We also know they have their own lingo, which I’m new at as many of you out there driving in the hammer lane. Well I drive mostly in the granny lane except when I know I’m gonna turn left down a ways. So, as I wrote 18-Wheeler, I ventured out to learn a bit of this lingo. I found Highway Hags and am still giggling. My writing only got more fun. So I thought I’d share a few of the tidbits they shared on their sight www.highwayhags.com/extras/trucker-talk.
DRIVER: A trucker is called a driver as truck driver…no matter what you are driving as long as it’s a truck. The rest of us are just drivin’. But don’t call them good buddies. That’s old and means something totally different now.
18-WHEELER: a semitrailer truck with 18 wheels rolling down the big road. And these 18-wheelers come in all shapes, sizes and fun names.( More on that later.)
TOWN: Okay we live in a city, a town, a village, a urban location, a metropolitan establishment. But, drivers see one collection of inhabitants living near each other, one after another until all these places where people exist look the same to them, so we live in a town. As in any old collective place along the road. Example: “Hey, you look good all the way to town.”
GATOR: I had fun with this one. It’s from alligator meaning the retread that has blown off of a tire and is laying in the road like road kill. The way they make tires now, it’s as deadly as an alligator because it made of wire tread mesh, hard rubber. Avoid these gators because they can mess up your car underneath and even crash into your windshield…and break it. And you lose control and well…. Avoid these buggers.
YARDSTICKS: Mile markers. You know these little guys that line the highway giving you numbers that tell you where you are as if you could figure that out. Not. But yardsticks do tell you the miles you’ve traveled to or from a state line. And if in an accident, you can locate yourself to the Bears out there. (more on highway patrol later)
BIG ROAD: Yeah, this is the main highway system we call the interstate. And as with all roads it comes with the little dashes down the middle of the lanes that are called Zippers
FUEL: well, we know that as gas. Drivers say fuel because other wise they have ‘gas’. Not funny.
HAMMER LANE and GRANNY LANE: Yep the fast lane…left, you know the one you are not supposed to stay in.Or we call it the passing lane because that’s what it’s for and why drivers get mad a me. Okay, I don’t like changing lanes all the time and I know I have to get off down a ways and turn left. And I am a granny and I know I should be driving in the slow lane/granny lane because I drive the speed limit or less. The middle lane has a name too, but I’ve lost it.
BRAKE CHECK: Well, that’s what a driver would say if they came up on me in the hammer lane. “Brake check” or slow down. However, usually it’s because a ‘bear’ is up there shooting you…with a radar gun. Yeah. You get it.
PARKING LOT: Nope, it’s not the Walmart parking lot. It’s when the traffic has slowed, and you have to do a ‘brake check’ because the cars are slowing to at stop. And you get to inch forward or not. And no way out. And you are stuck in the ‘parking lot’.
Okay, enough for now. Stay tuned for law enforcement and public service…my favorite. I really enjoyed playing with ‘trucker talk’ in my contemporary mature romance 18 WHEELER with John and Carrie traveling the big road of life on his 18-wheeler. Their lives are never the same. Check out my website http://www.jeanneleebooks.com to learn more about their story and where it’s available right now. More comin’ soon.
See ya on the flip-flop,
Jeanne
