Big Trucks = Big Fascination, Almost 40 Years Later

They're busy repaving parts of 4th Street southwest in downtown Rochester today. It's the street that runs right in front of the Quick Country 96.5 studios and offices. So, of course, I had to wander out and take a look at what's entailed in the process of laying down a new layer of asphalt as the work crew moved south from 2nd Avenue southwest. It was then that it hit me: guys' fascination with big pieces of construction equipment never ends, does it?

I remember crews repaving a road near our house back in central Wisconsin when I was a little kid and how fascinated I was by the huge graders, bulldozers and dump trucks. Seeing as the project took more than a day to complete, they would park the equipment at night right there near my house-- pretty much daring me to walk over and take a closer look.  And, of course, my brother and I had the requisite Tonka Toy graders, bulldozers and dump trucks, too -- back when they were still made of metal!

It always looked like it'd be great fun to drive one of those machines. It still kind of does, even though I know it's a job-- a job that requires hard work, put in over the course of many hours by a skilled driver. And, like any job, at the end of a long week, I'm guessing operating one of those pieces of equipment isn't really what one would describe as "fun."  But to a guy who has limited contact with these big machines, my fascination with them continues, even almost 40 years later.