All roads lead to Libby

Bill Dawson has driven truck through

much of the western United States, but somehow his truck has always

taken him to Libby.

Dawson retired about a year ago after a

52-year career as a professional truck driver.

“My whole life is trucks,” says Dawson

as he stands in the office at his Shalom Drive home.

His computer is filled with pictures of

his trucks and on the walls hang more pictures of the trucks he’s

driven over the years.

Two framed photos hang side by side on

the wall. Both show very similar scenes yet were taken 42 years

apart. In one, Dawson, as an 18-year-old man, stands wearing a

white T-shirt in front of his truck. In the other, he stands a bit

older at age 60, but still in a white T-shirt smiling in front of

his truck.

Dawson got his start as a teenager

driving for his father out of Billings.

At first, he hauled cement bags, cinder

blocks and bricks around town. Loading of the trucks was done by

hand.

“I’d haul cement bags after school,” he

said. “You weigh 120 pounds and the bags weighed 90 pounds. If you

could unload the whole load before dad got there you were a big

shot.”

In 1953, at the age of 13 he made his

first trip to Libby with his father. They picked up loads of cedar

posts and hauled them to ranchers in central Montana. In 1959 they

made their last trip for fence posts.

Later Dawson hauled cattle and grain

out of Billings. He traveled to Las Vegas and California.

“I was always watching for Elvis

Presley,” he said with a laugh. “I never saw him.”

Dawson worked for his father until age

36 when their trucking company went broke. He then went to work for

Garrett Freight.

Life on the road can be difficult,

driving six days per week and being away from home. But Dawson was

raised to work hard.

“You started working, you got married

and had a family, but you always kept working,” he said.

Dawson and his wife Wilma have been

married 49 years and have two daughters. They met while he was

driving truck. She was working at the feed mill in Billings when he

was hauling grain.

They were married in six months. They

set out in his truck together and headed to the 1962 Seattle

World’s Fair. It was Wilma’s first stop in Libby.

“Where Torgy’s is, there was a Husky

truck stop,” he said. “We stopped there for breakfast.”

It was a decision to quit smoking that

would cause the Dawsons to move to Libby. They had lived in

Billings 26 years when he came home and announced they were selling

the house and moving.

Dawson started smoking at about age 12

and at age 46 he decided to quit after smoking two packs a day.

“Quitting is mentally and physically

difficult,” he said. “It makes you cranky at everyone.”

This was the mood he found himself in

when he decided to move to Libby. A job was opening up here and he

intended to get it.

“There’s two things I’m proud of I quit

smoking and I helped my children get through school,” he said.

“That was the good Lord’s doing and my wife’s.”

Dawson has been able to generally

maintain a healthy life-style despite the connotations that come

with being a trucker. His father died at age 68.

“My dad died of trucker’s disease —

cigarettes, whisky and a bad diet,” he said.

Some truckers might talk about the good

old days. However, Dawson, says the good days for truckers is right

now. Wages are better and the trucks are much nicer with better

heating and more comfortable seats. The trucks are safer too and

easier to drive with power steering.

“It used to take a man to drive a

truck,” he said. “There were some women truck drivers. It was

strong arming it. Now you can turn the wheel with one finger.”

Improvements in the interstate road

system has improved life, too.

“It’s cut the travel time,” he said.

“When I was a kid riding with my dad we were lucky to go 25 mph.

Now you can go 60 or 70 mph.”

Through the years he has always carried

a camera with him in his truck — first film and recently

digital.

“When I graduated from high school in

1958 I got a Sears 35 mm camera,” he said. “I’ve always taken a lot

of pictures.”

Before retiring Dawson spent 27 years

working for AmeriGas hauling out of Libby. He delivered propane

around the region traveling to Canada and Denver.

This past winter was the first in 50

years that he hasn’t been driving truck. Instead, he’s been

finishing his basement and continues to serve as an officer at St.

John Lutheran Church.

Does he miss being on the road?

“Zero,” he said.