This is the first chapter of "Surviving the Transition to Manhood", it is a continuation of my earlier writings "The horror that was my childhood - a tale of survival against the greatest of odds!"; which was a 4 part post. If you haven't read them yet please do: [Part 1] | [Part 2] | [Part 3] | [Part 4]. Oh and the obligatory warning is still in effect:

 IF YOU ARE PRONE TO VIOLENT OR EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  

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By the time I made it from her house to Atlanta I was fully dressed, had a full belly and a pocket full of money. Being a kid on the road had it's advantages....but it had its disadvantages too. 

15 and Homeless:

So I find myself with no where to live, no identification, very little money and absolutely no fucking clue what to do now. Initially I hung out around the truck stop on the West side of Atlanta. To be honest I can't remember if it was a Petro back then or not (it is now).

One day while I am begging for a meal, a driver offers to let me unload his trailer when he gets to the Consignee (Receiver) and offers to pay me $300 for doing so. I really needed the money so I rushed at the chance. When I didn't know at the time was the the Consignee was in Tampa, FL Oh well, I will make some money then go to the beach, I thought!

So we get down to Tampa with little fuss, he even fed me on the way down (real food you sicko's). When we got to the Consignee it took me about 4 hours to unload and breakdown his load. For those that don't know 'breakdown' is when the pallets of product are not stacked the way the Consignee wants/needs them to be or when there are multiple products to a pallet that require separate pallets. As soon as I was done he said he would take me to the Truck-stop (near the junction of I4 and I75) and cash a Comcheck to pay me. Without fail, he did exactly what he said. 

As I walked out of the truck stop with $300 worth of nice crisp $20's in my pocket I got an idea. "I wonder if I can do this all the time" I thought. So I started walking towards the mall (was going to Radio Shack) but before I made it a mile I found a Pawn Shop and guess what they had nice and cheap like ($40) a Handheld 40 Channel CB Radio, so I bought it. On the way back to the truck stop I saw a CB Shop so for another $20 I got the radio Peaked and Tuned so I could talk to drivers at all the Truck-stops in the Tampa area. Then right next door to the truck stop was a Motel. So I went and got a room for a week. I still had around $100 left to eat on so I was happy as shit and just chillaxed for a minute. That was about as long as I got to enjoy it too, as I soon discovered every fucking hooker (prostitute) in Tampa lived in that damn motel. Everyone of them wanted something, usually drugs or money to buy drugs and it was a non-stop parade of door knocks 20 ours a damn day.

So I was like screw it I will find some more work, and that is what I did. I got on my CB Radio and started harking my services. Before long I had multiple trucks to unload all going to the same Consignee. I wound up making $1500 that day. Thankfully, when I returned to the motel the hookers had gotten the hint and were leaving me alone. So I slept for like 3 days straight. When I finally awoke I got back on my CB and started harking my services again. Much to my surprise though, every time I tried to talk some black guy would get on the radio and undercut my price. It wasn't long before there several black guys doing it and within a few days they found where I was staying and started threatening my "cracker ass".

So back on the road I go again, this time I have money in my pocket so I just found me a ride. I don't really remember much about the next year or so as there were a lot of sleepless weeks hitchhiking around the country. Hopping from one semi truck to the next.

16 & Homeless:

I remember at 16 I had hitchhiked into Jacksonville Beach, FL. I was beyond f'ing broke by this point and hadn't eaten in several days. So I went to Baja Beach Club, it was a bar/restaurant on the Boardwalk. Within minutes I had a job as a Dishwasher working in the evenings and a free meal a day. The boss even let me eat then, even though I wouldn't start work til the next day. So after a nice meal, I walk down the boardwalk and on the other end I went into the motel to talk to the manager. Within a few minutes I talked him into giving me a second floor room (no ocean view) in exchange for washing the linens for the maids in the mornings.

I was still hungry and had no money so I was walking back down the boardwalk to go panhandle and the guy that owned the local Pizza joint on the boardwalk stopped me and asked me my story. When he heard my situation he gave me a couple slices. Every morning I would go by the Pizza place and help him setup, then to the motel and do laundry and then to Baja Beach Club to wash dishes. When I got my first paycheck I went to KMart and bought a nice pair of slacks and shoes. Within a few days I was filling in as a waiter when they needed me to at Baja.

I thought things were finally looking up and I was going to get a normal, happy life. Boy was I in for a shock. A few weeks into my stay in Jacksonville Beach the Indian (from India) that owned the motel fired me. He said I wasn't washing fast enough, but I think he just wanted to rent my room as it was the busiest part of the year. So I walk down to work, way early, with my backpack and ask if I can store it there somewhere. My boss, realizing I am no homeless, fires me on the spot and tells me to come back in a few hours for my final paycheck.

When I go back for my final paycheck I am in utter shock that he tells me I owe them money. He went back and charged me for all my meals, the ones I was supposed to have gotten for FREE when I was working. So I am now homeless again and have no damn money. I walk a block away and literally collapse on the street corner. The weight of my situation is unbearable at this point. Like a ton of bricks falling out of an airplane it all hits me at once....my life fucking sucks!

As I sat there on the sidewalk crying my balls off a short, 30 something, man approaches and says come with me. A mile later we had walked to his Apartment where he proceeds to wash my clothes while I take a shower. As soon as I get out of the shower (with nothing but a towel cause he was washing everything) he gives me a meal. By the time I finished eating laundry was done so I started getting dress and repacking my backpack. I figured, he was just taking pity on me and would ask me to leave. I wished he had done that.

As soon as I get the backpack repacked I sat down on his couch to rest, and wait for the "get the fuck out now" speech. I am not sure if I was just overly tired or if he put something in my food or drink but I passed the hell out almost as soon as my ass hit the couch. When I awake several hours later my pants were off and he was between my legs blowing me like his life depended on it. I was so fucked in the head by this point I didn't know what to do. Part of me was screaming "get out of here NOW" and another part was like "damn that feels good". The "damn that feels good" side won out and I just sat there in shock until Junior erupted like a pissed off Mount Saint Helens.

I wound up staying with him for a few weeks, cause what man doesn't like a good blow job 3-4 times a day. However, when he started trying to make me his bitch (boyfriend) I got the hell out of there. 

I wound up walking all the way to Jacksonville to the closest truck stop and went back to trying to Lump Loads (find trailers to unload). I hadn't eaten in almost 2 days by the time I finally got to the truck stop and it was night time. But a driver was nice enough to make me a sandwich. While I was sitting in his truck eating my sandwich he was on the CB trying to find me some work and a place to sleep.

Then in pulls a 20 something young woman with a set of doubles (two trailers). Every parking spot at this truck stop was a back in parking. She tries for like half an hour to back into a spot while most of the other drivers sit there and laugh at her on the CB. When she responds she is claiming to have been driving for 10 years. Finally, I get on the CB and say "lady I ain't even a truck driver but I can do better than that." so she pulls her parking brakes and responds "then come prove it". Needless to say, I got the truck and trailers backed into the spot on the first try. About 20 drivers were like "holy shit" and she was furious. Turns out that it is impossible to back a set of doubles more than a few feet.....well I guess nobody ever told me cause it wasn't. When I got down out of her truck, I was standing there talking to her, she was very beautiful and I was very horny. 

After she calmed down she invited me to take a shower. I expected us to have separate showers, but she wanted to make sure I was nice and clean. Once we got into the shower and she started getting undressed Junior stood in attention like the Queen's Guard. You could have hung a rack of lamb off him and he still would have been standing in attention. Well one thing leads to another and we wind up screwing in the shower, then going back to her truck and screwing for the rest of the night. I never did get her name and when the sun came up she told me to "get the fuck out" and away she went.

One of the other drivers, a nice late 20's black man, was curious about what went down so he offered me a ride to LA and was going to let me unload his trailer when we got there. We didn't make it 20 miles down Interstate 10 before he got out of the drivers seat (at 70 mph) and said "you drive, I need some sleep". I had ridden in hundreds of semi trucks before but never driven one. I thought to myself, it can't be that hard so in the driver seat I went.

I am pretty certain that he was out cold before he even hit the bed. So I drove and I drove and then I drove some more......until the low fuel light started flashing at me. Yes, somewhere in Lousianna, I found a truck stop and coasted up the ramp, through the turn and into the truck-stop. Keyword being coasted. This truck was an old B model Mack (Dump Truck) converted to an Over-the-road semi. It had 3 damn gear shifts (Quadraplex) and I hadn't the foggiest idea how to work them.

Once I got the truck stopped at the fuel island I began the process of trying to wake the driver up. It wasn't happening, a nuclear bomb wouldn't have woken this dude if it went off a mile away. He was down for the count! Well I had been around trucks long enough to know he probably payed for his fuel with some kind of fuel card, so after a quick search I found his wallet and grabbed the fuel card out and filled the truck. Then found an old-timer (trucker that had been driving for decades) and asked him "how the fuck do I shift this truck". After a brief tutorial I was in gear and making my way back to the interstate.

It is important to note that on a Quadraplex (two gear shifts for the transmission and 1 for the multi-speed rear differential) there are no syncro's. Meaning if you miss a gear you are coming to a complete damn stop and starting all over. 

So I hit the ramp to the interstate to continue on to Los Angeles. It took me over 100 miles and about 30 complete stops to finally get that damn truck up to 70 mph. So drive I did, then drove some more and then even more. Wait, what's that: the low fuel light again....crap.....so I whipped into the Triple T truck-stop in Tuscon, AZ and wouldn't you know it I still couldn't wake the driver up. At this point I was honestly wondering if he was dead; but I grabbed his fuel card and filled the truck up again.

Back on the road I finally cross into California. I am just coming up on Thousand Palms when the driver finally wakes up and asks me "where are we at". I replied dude you been asleep for two days, we are in Thousand Palms, CA. He jumped in the front screaming "how the fuck did we get here" and I was like "umm I drove and oh by the way here are your fuel receipts". Once he was fully awake he was happy as hell and I drove us on into the delivery in LA.

After I got his trailer unloaded we headed over to his next pickup and then off to the truck-stop in Ontario, CA so he could get some money and pay me. He wound up paying me $1,000 for driving all the way to LA and unloading the trailer. Then asked if I wanted to stay on with him. At the time I didn't so I got out of the truck and staid at the Union 76 (TA truck-stop). A week or so later, he shows back up and I still haven't found any work or a ride out of there.

So I am back on his truck and we are headed to New Jersey. From Jersey down to Jacksonville, FL then back to LA. I do this run with him for a few weeks and make crazy good money. When I finally got off his truck in LA I had several thousands dollars in my pocket, a backpack full of new clothes and a full belly.

*** That's all for today but make sure you Follow Me and check back tomorrow for Part 2. ***