A 16 year old kid, a truck, and disaster !

August 6, 1974

Not this load, nor canvas cover from this truck, but it was this truck 

I had received my Driver's Ed class certificate in the morning.

This truck had been loaded with 200 fifty lb. boxes of cabbage in open wooden melon crates. I was driving the truck as it was being loaded in the DeLalio field about 1/4 mile down Republic Rd. from the barn yard. Boxes were stacked directly onto truck floor, no pallets. Then secured with heavy ropes. The rest of the produce was to be loaded in the yard. 

It was noon hour. Dad was eating his lunch, as he was driving a truck to Pathmark warehouse in NJ. Roger had to go to other fields for irrigation purposes. Joe needed to tend to workers in other fields. Hey Charlie, (one of my many nicknames),  you can drive this truck into the yard. Remember, go very slow on the lane & road. Yes!! Yes !! I'm going to drive the truck on the road. Only 1/4 mile, but still the road.

I went very very slow on the dirt lane along the side of the chain link fence next to Camp Marydale. Never shifted out of 1st gear. Got to end of lane to Republic Rd. I waited and watched until road was clear to pull into road, a left turn.

Slowly, I turned the steering wheel while in 1st gear and eased the truck onto Republic Rd. and headed north towards the barnyard. Hoo ha ! I was driving the truck loaded with cabbage, I think stacked 6 boxes high. I did as I was instructed to do, drive slow. I must have shifted into second gear. The radio was off. I drove by our house , and the very slight bend in the road. The barnyard driveway was 150 ft away. I slowed down to 10 mph, I should have been crawling. 

I steered the truck with 5 tons of cabbage slightly right into the barnyard driveway. "Oh shit! Is the truck going to turn over? Fxck , fxck." 200 boxes of cabbage just shifted, spilling into the sand, dirt , and gravel of the driveway and Republic Rd. Holy shit, holy shit. Cars were driving around the rolling heads of cabbage, looking at me with stares of, " what the hell just happened?".

Dad was the first to see it from a distance , as he was walking back to yard from his lunch. I remember him shaking his head, but I don't recall if he said anything. He had to get over to Jersey.

Of course, Joe was pissed as hell. Roger didn't say anything  

I quickly with the help of some others got all the loose heads out of the road. Everyone then went to lunch.

I scarfed my lunch down in 10 minutes . Mom was very understanding. I rushed back to the yard and got a tractor with a trailer and threw a bunch of empty crates onto the trailer .Drove down to the disaster. I quickly with the aid of my brother and others , Jim Dillon ?, tried to clean up the mess before my grandfather came back from his lunch hour. No deal  . You can imagine his reaction. Oh boy ! But, Joe & Roger caught more shit then I did for letting me drive solo the first time I drove a truck load on the road  ( Joe & Roger were my dear uncles)

Joke was , did I get my Driver's Ed certificate from Sears & Roebuck? 

We cleaned up dumped cabbage and sold to a coleslaw processing plant in NYC.

P.S. I'm very sure this news made it round to all other Schmitt Farms