I've been a trucker for the last ten years but now I am back home at "Camp Chaos" and I will be working at the Fontana terminal as a safety specialist. I hope now that I'm home I'll have a lot more time for blogging!


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The other day, I was driving through Virginia. I felt a tap on my arm. I looked down, it was Bear; ‘BJ’. I still call him Bear.

“What you need, Bear”, I said, glancing at him, “You look kind of down today.” “What’s the matter?”

“Oh, its not important… I just thought people might like to know the story of how I got my name… you know, the way it really happened.

I looked down at him again. “OK, Bear tell me how it really happened. He told me his story. Then he said. “Will you put that on your blog? The people would read it and they might like my story”

“All right, Bear” I replied, “when I get some time I’ll type it up and we’ll put it on the blog.

So, yesterday I typed it up. Bear was looking over my shoulder the whole time, reminding me if I forgot any details.

Here is his story:


Bear woke up with a start. Moments ago it had been all dark, but suddenly it was bright as daylight. He looked around, nothing had changed since he went to sleep last night. Elephant and Giraffe were still right next to him. Then he heard some voices and everything came back to him. He was in a store, sitting on a shelf. He guessed he was waiting for something but he didn’t know what. For several days now he had been sitting on this shelf with his other two friends and they didn’t know what they were waiting for either.

What bothered Bear the most was he didn’t like his name. He had already figured out he was a bear. How he knew that nobody knows, bears are just smart. What bothered him was the other part of his name. People came by him in the aisle, some tall people some very short people. He liked the short people the most, because they were almost his size. They would look at him and say “Oh, look at ‘the Stuffed Bear’, isn’t he adorable!” or “Oh, Mommy, look at ‘the Stuffed Bear’! Can I have him?” but no one had wanted him enough yet so Bear sat and sat, waiting.

Bear puzzled over his name. “The Stuffed Bear”. He just didn’t like the way it sounded. Sometimes people would say “Oh, look at that ‘Cute Stuffed Bear’” Bear didn’t mind the word ‘cute’, he liked the word ‘adorable’. He didn’t know what the words meant but they sounded nice. It was that horrible word ‘Stuffed’! He didn’t know what that meant either but he just didn’t like the sound of it! Everyone used it before the word ‘Bear’ and he knew he was a bear so he figured it must be his name. “Oh well,” he thought sadly, all I want is for someone to love me and if living with the name ‘Stuffed’ was the price he would have to pay for love, he decided it was worth it.

That afternoon just about the time Bear was going to take his afternoon nap, a man came by. This man wasn’t too tall, he wasn’t too short either. A little taller than Bear, but Bear thought that was okay. This man looked Bear over. He picked Bear up and looked at his sides, both sides, muttered to himself “I guess they sewed him up alright, looks like he will do”

These words weren’t anything like Bear was hoping to hear from someone who might be someone who would love him. The next thing Bear knew he was being carried to a counter with a big noisy machine and a lady standing behind it. The man took some wilted green pieces of paper out of his wallet and handed them to the lady, she put the paper in her drawer, handed the man another white piece of paper and the man picked up Bear and walked out of the big room where Bear had spent all of the life he for as long as he could remember. They were ‘OUTSIDE”!!! He was surrounded in the brightest light he had ever seen. So bright, Bear had to squint. He was being carried somewhere, the floor was all black and he saw some other strange animals he had never seen before.

These animals were a lot bigger than he was and he saw that every one of them was a different color! They had funny feet, ‘if’ they were even feet at all. He couldn’t figure what else they could be. They were ‘round’ feet. All black too, just like the floor. They must have gotten that black dirt all over their feet, he thought. They are going to have to wash their feet when they get home.

Just then, another colored animal roared by him. A very strange roar. Maybe it wasn’t a roar, he thought, maybe it was just a growl. These were strange animals indeed. “Oh, No,” he thought, horrified, he just saw the side of the animal open up and ‘people’ climbed out! So, was that how people got around? Then a horrible thought occurred to him. This man had looked at his seams. Was Bear going to be cut open and were little people going to ride around inside of Him!! This wasn’t Bear’s idea of a fun time. He was willing to sacrifice a lot to get love but he had thought living with a terrible name was the limit. This would certainly require him to re-think his needs a little bit!

Just then the man carrying him turned Bear towards him and spoke. “Hi, I’m ‘Tomthetrucker”… if it’s okay with you, I’m going to call you ‘Bear’”. Bear quickly erased his previous train of thought and felt his heart give a little leap of joy! This man didn’t call him ‘Stuffed Bear’!! He just called him ‘Bear’! As things were going today, bear decided this was enough reason to be happy for now. This man had dropped the hated word ‘stuffed’ from Bear’s name so Bear decided he would do the same for this man’s name. That name, ‘Tomthetrucker’, seemed to Bear to be too many words squashed together anyway so if he could drop ‘stuffed’ from Bear’s name, then bear could drop a few from this man’s name. “Glad to meet you, Tomthetrucker, … Mind if I call you ‘Tom??” Tom didn’t say anything, just resumed carrying Bear and walked further across this hot black floor.

A few minutes later, Tom turned Bear around and pointed his face towards the BIGGEST animal Bear had EVER seen!! This animal was many times bigger than the other colored animals Bear had seen people climb out of. Like the other animals this animal had ‘round’ feet too, Bear noticed, but this animal had a LOT of ‘round’ feet!!! The other animals had four feet just like Bear but ‘this’ animal…. Bear couldn’t count high enough to count all the feet he could see!! All he could think about was, what would he do if this animal decided to EAT him??

Right at that moment, Tom grabbed a handle on the animals side and opened up a big ‘hole’ inside the animal. Then the man hoisted bear ‘UP, UP, UP onto a seat and then closed him in!! Bear was petrified! He was inside of this animal. He discovered he could look out. That was a relief!

Bear looked around. He saw next to him, another seat, and a big round skinny thing in mid air above the seat. He wondered what that thing was. He didn’t have anything like that inside of him that he knew about but then Bear didn’t have ‘round black feet’ either. Bear decided these animals were certainly different than he was. Bear remembered wondering why he didn’t have a long neck like ‘Giraffe’ had or why he didn’t have a Looooong nose like ‘Elephant’ had so maybe animals are just … different!

Just then bear looked out the front opening of the animal and he saw what looked like a nose! It was like bear’s nose, just a lot bigger. So… maybe this animal is just a BIG bear!

All of a sudden the wall on the other side opened up and Tom climbed up and sat beside Bear! He put his hands on the round skinny thing and then stuck a shiny silver thing into a slot on the front wall and then this ‘big’ bear really started to GROWL!! Wow, Bear had never heard an animal growl like this before!! Then the ‘big’ bear started to move!! Tom had his hands on the round skinny thing and then Bear noticed that if Tom turned the round skinny thing in his hands, the ‘big’ bear would ‘go’ that way!! Boy, this is great, thought Bear. “’Big’ bear goes wherever Tom wants him to go… just by turning the round skinny thing!

Finally Tom spoke up. “I’m taking you to school today!, Does that sound like fun?” Bear wondered what ‘school’ meant but he didn’t know how to say very many words so he just looked at Tom and tried to look happy.

A few minutes later Tom stopped this strange wonderful bear animal in front of a big building. There were a lot of people there, and Bear noticed there were a lot of the ‘short’ people he had seen walk by when he was on the shelf. Bear wondered if this is where ‘all’ the short people lived.

Tom came around and opened up ‘Big’ bear animal and grabbed Bear and carried him inside of the building. There were lots of smaller rooms with aisles between all of them. Bear heard so many voices all at the same time he couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from but he thought most of the noise was coming from the ‘short’ people.

Next thing Bear knew he was being carried into a room full on ‘short’ people. They were sitting in rows and they were all looking at HIM!!!

Tom set Bear down on a hard wooden surface a few feet off the ground. Bear noticed the floor was just like the floor where he had been before Tom came along. It wasn’t black like the outside floor was.

All the ‘short’ people shouted when Bear looked up. He was embarrassed to see so many people looking at him all at once.

Miss Jane, the only other ‘tall’ person besides Tom said. “Do any of you have a name for Bear?” The ‘short’ people all started talking at once. Miss Jane, said. “STOP! One at a time please”… Amber, do you have a name you would like to call Bear?” Amber thought awhile.. I want to call him “STUFFY”! Bear shuddered when he heard that word. He thought, “I sure hope nobody else likes that name…”

Miss Jane looked around the room. “Suzie, do you have a name??” Suzie looked at the boy sitting next to her. Secretly, she really liked this boy. “Yes, I want to call him… ‘BILLY”

Just then another boy called out, “I want to call him ‘JACK’”!

All of the ‘short’ people started talking at once so Miss Jane had to say again, “I told you… Only one at a time!!” “How many want to call Bear ‘BILLY’” ?? A lot of hands went up. “How many want to call him ‘JACK’”?? Again a lot of hands went up. Just as many as went up for ‘BILLY’!! Miss Jane thought for a second. “How about we call him ‘BILLY JACK’?? That suggestion was greeted with a huge “Yeah, let’s call him ‘BILLY JACK’”. Miss Jane said, “we can call him ‘BJ’ for short”.

Bear was soooo happy,

Miss Jane looked at Bear, and said. “BILLY JACK, you are going to ride with Tom in his big truck. Every week we want you to send us a postcard telling us where you are going and where you have been.”!

Bear was too overwhelmed to talk. He was going to get to ride around the country and send postcards to all of the ‘short’ people he had just met. He was sure they were going be the best friends he could ever have, except Tom, of course. Now he knew the ‘Big’ bear animal was called a ‘big truck’. He was sure he would have a lot to learn about this big truck.

As Tom was carrying Bear out of the classroom, Bear decided he wasn’t ‘Bear’ anymore. He now had a new name. ‘Billy Jack’, BJ for short. Just as BJ got to the door, all the ‘short’ people shouted. “We love you BJ!” “You help Tom drive his truck! Okay?” “Please come back and see us soon."

BJ couldn’t keep it inside any longer, big tears of joy rolled down his face. Today, he had met many new friends who he was going to love and he knew now they loved him already. He was going to go on the longest trip ever and see so many sights and he wasn’t going to hear the word ‘STUFFED' ever again.

Just as I was afraid… every time my cell phone rings now, Bear wants to know if ‘Sesame Street’ is calling. He is sure they are going to award him a million dollar contract and he will be the next big name on television.

“No, Bear” I say wearily, “I don’t think Sesame Street will be calling any time soon. I don’t think they even know I have a blog”

Bear looked down at the floor for a few moments, then he looked up, his face brightening. “Well then, do you think Auntie Brenda would do some neat pictures, you know ‘Illustrations’”? “Then we could maybe make a book for the children to enjoy.”

I had explained that the people Bear had been calling ‘short’ people, we called them “children”. “Sometimes, we call them ‘kids’. “Sometimes we call them ‘brats’. Sometimes we call them… Oh, never mind”

Bear thought about all of this. He said he would wait and see what happens. He went
back to his spot on the bunk. At least he looked happier now. We’ll see what happens…

“Bear”, I said again, “You know you got some of your facts mixed up in this story.”

“I know,” he said, looking at the floor again. “I made some of it up. Isn’t that okay?”

“I’ll tell them,” I said, and went back to driving.

posted by Tom at 2:07 AM