April 12, 2003
Truckersdag
Today was the 14th annual Truckersdag. Not- I confess- that I remembered, for if I had, I would have warned Han to stay off of the village roads this morning.
Meg and I were lounging around in the house this morning ( for today it is Han's turn to watch Mike's football team lose), when we heard the sound of a police siren in the distance. We went to the living room window and peeked out, but couldn't see anything. The sound was getting closer and in addition we could hear other horns and beepers and tooters and then I realized that today was Truckersdag.
As we had to do some shopping today in any case, I dressed Meg and we walked into town. And just as we reached the baker's, the motorcycles escorting the trucks pulled into our main street. And like all of the other shoppers and store keepers and plain old passers-by, Meg and I took a seat on the high stoop next to the baker's and waved as all of the trucks went by.
As we sat there waving to each and every one of the over 100 trucks, police vehicles, vans, a few busses, and ambulances ( all of them, by the way, blowing their horns and sirens the whole time), an elderly man came over to me and asked me what was going on.
Once a year, I told him, people who drive/ own ( mainly ) trucks , donate a Saturday morning of their time. They line their trucks up in a convoy which stretches for miles and sitting up front with every driver is a young, mentally handicapped person. At precisely 9.15, the convoy takes off, horns blaring the whole time and for the next 3 hours, weaves it's way through the centers of all of the small villages in our county. And in every village, the people line up and wave to the trucks as they go by.
Truckersdag is a nice thing to see. Unless, of course, you are in a car and your path is blocked by the convoy.
You know, Mike and Han should have been home an hour ago.
Posted by at April 12, 2003 11:20 AM