![\"\"](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/EasternMFshortscompression.700.jpg\")
<\/a>Over the Road” truck driving is dangerous work and I was away from home 5 days a week.<\/p><\/div>\n
I used to drive for this cement, limestone, and sand hauler out of North Branford, and then I saw it was a vintage long-nosed Peterbilt with a sleeper berth, and the flashbacks on how my life had changed since those days began to sink in.<\/p>\n
When I saw the number 41 on the hood, I knew it was the same tractor I used to drive 11 to 14 hours a day between Southern New Jersey to Hudson, New York to Springfield, Massachusetts, and into Cumberland, Rhode Island.<\/p>\n
Here I am today, dressed in my khakis and button-down shirt, in my VW Golf with my laptop in the back seat and a latte in my cupholder, living in a different world. Instinctively I began waving to this truck driver, who had no idea I used to sit in that same seat and grab 18 gears all day.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Bike Riding, one of the pleasures of my life.<\/p><\/div>\n
What a rush to start my day. I had just finished riding a 64-mile gravel bike ride with 4,000 feet of climbing on Saturday and got the chills just thinking about how much my life had changed in recent years.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I was home every night like the \u201cDriver Wanted\u201d ad said I would be, but I was totally shattered each night, barely able to drive the 40 minutes home for my 8 hours of sleep and then back on the road.<\/p>\n
I slept a few nights in the truck\u2019s sleeper berth at the terminal, too tired to drive home. I was 72 years old, and my fitness and good health were disappearing quickly with high blood pressure and diabetes about to move in for the kill when I had to quit or die.<\/p>\n So, this was a startling reminder of how fortunate I am for that phone call that came from LPI out of nowhere.<\/p>\n I had stopped driving the big rigs for six months and was still looking for a parts delivery job with no takers when I realized my unemployment was about to run out. I had even tried to get on with UPS just for the Christmas season, but no matter how I tried to hide my age on applications or my resume, modern-day software had a way to figure it out.<\/p>\n Visiting Senior Centers is not as dangerous as my truck driving career and more rewarding.<\/p><\/div>\n I knew there was no way corporate America was going to let me back in at age 75, so I did not even think about applying for any kind of sales position. Just give me a small van to drive while dropping off parts for $15.00 an hour, and I would be a happy camper, but it was not happening.<\/p>\n Then as I was walking my dog one evening, my cell phone rang, and I was sure it was a scam call, but as I started to hang up, the voice on the other end said. \u201cMr. Humphreys, we want to talk to you about a sales position with our company.\u201d<\/p>\n That made me want to hang up even faster. Who in their right mind was going to hire a 75-year-old ex-truck driver? They had to know that I was no \u201cSpring Chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n The recruiter was patient and got me to answer a few questions, which loosened me up enough to be congenial, and then he asked if I was interested, he could arrange to have someone else call me for a more thorough interview.<\/p>\n Two days and three phone interviews later, I was offered the job, and arrangements were made to fly me to Cleveland for a week of training.<\/p>\n Now I was really in shock and afraid to tell anyone but my wife, and even then, I could not believe that corporate America, in the form of LPI, was throwing this old cowboy a lifeline.<\/p>\n When I left for the airport, I told my wife, \u201cThey are going to send me home as soon as they realize how old I am.\u201d That was over three years ago, and I thank my lucky stars every day that I did not hang up on what has become the best job I\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n One man’s story why it is never too late<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2023","category-fall-2023-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14098"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14457,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14098\/revisions\/14457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Bill Humphreys has lived an audacious life, blessed with good mental and physical health, that he works on every day. He is the co-author of The Jersey Project<\/em><\/a>. His current memoir is close to being finished. “I am available for great inspirational storytelling.”<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"