What in the world was that Bear thinking?

by Bob "Little Giant" Ciaccia
(Conshohocken, Pa US of A)

The year? 1984. Big Brother? Nah! Just a nationwide double nickle (55) mph speed limit that drove most of us nuts back then as some states ruled with an iron fist to enforce that law.

I left Dayton, Ohio at 1500 hours heading west to Indianapolis, Indiana for a 0700 delivery the next day. I was in no rush as it is a 4 hour ride on a "bad" day. Three more trucks followed me as we crossed into Indiana and we all were just puttzin' along and jawin' on the CB.

A few miles into the Hoosier state we had a call that smokey bear was coming up behind us. I said, "Thank you very much" and paid him no never mind as we were barely doing 55. As the Bear caught up to us, he slowed down at each truck and checked for our Indiana fuel stickers, attached to the drivers side of the truck. This was before the days of IFTA.

About 1/4 mile past me, the lead truck, he shot across two lanes of traffic onto the shoulder, came to a schreechin' halt and shot out of his police cruiser.

Thankfully, no one was to my left as I had to swerve into the left lane to avoid ripping the door off his car and possibly running him over! The wind from my truck ripped off his smokey the bear hat and sent it rolling down the highway on its rim.

The truck behind me ran it over. As did the truck behind him and the truck after him. Mr. Smokey rolled up to what was left off his hat, threw it into his car and passed us doing triple digits, so we thought!

There was dead silence on the CB until one of us broke out into laughter and we laughed most of the way to "Circle City". "What in the world was that Bear thinking?"