Murphy's World

And You Thought You Had It Bad

Dear Murphy,
An old-timer told me this story recently in a truck stop:

“Back where I’m from the only job you could get was in the coal mines or haul coal. Since I didn’t want to be down in the mines, I put all the money I had down on an old coal truck and started hauling coal. After a few years the truck was using a lot of oil, and every one of the other guys could outrun me.

“I was looking in a magazine one day and found this ad for low mileage, good engines for sale. This buddy of mine and I went and bought one. My buddy told me it didn’t matter what engine it was; he could make it fit in my truck. So after about three months of working day after day, sometimes way into the night, we got it in the truck.

“I started it up, let out on the clutch and it started backward. Then I put it in reverse, and it moved forward. I had 14 gears in reverse and two to move forward. Turns out the engine was out of a bus and ran backward because bus engines are mounted behind the rear axle.”

I told the old-timer, “Yep, that’s frustration!” I hope you can use this story, Murphy.

Tony Spessert
East Windsor, CT

Dear Tony,
Hope we can use it? Are you kidding me, we can’t wait to use it! That’s one of the best stories we’ve ever heard, and believe me, we’ve heard some beauties.

I don’t know anything about bus engines, but the mental picture I have of that old-timer firing up his truck and discovering he has 14 gears going in reverse and only two going forward is truly priceless. You can’t make stuff like that up.

Sure, life on the road has its ups and downs. We’ve all suffered our share of frustration out there. But then we pull into a truck stop, chat up an old-timer with a few million miles under his belt, and discover that as bad as things might be going for us right now, it’s comforting in a weird sort of way to know that someone else has had it worse.

And that, my friend, is why we call it Murphy’s World.