I used to hitch a ride to town with my dad when I was going to school. There were several reasons I’d do that.

First off there was a time before I had a drivers license that I had no choice, except riding the bus. There were 2 reasons I didn’t or couldn’t ride on the bus. Mostly I just didn’t want to, because I’d be picked on. But sometimes I’d be picking on people and get my bus riding privileges taken away. A lot of the time it was when I had a car, but I’d tear it up and have to catch a ride, because by that time I was already out of the bus riding habit.

We had to get up real early and leave. Cecil ran the dump trucks out of Pure Stone in those days, a fleet of 4 or 5 trucks that he would have to insure got on the road by 5:30 each morning. After getting them all going we’d head for the Blue Bonnet to meet up with various early morning coffee drinkers. Cec didn’t eat breakfast . But since I was a growing boy, I was always hungry so I would order a bunch of breakfast. That time of the morning it usually didn’t take long to get your order, so once it got there I’d dive in eating as fast as I could. Reason being, when Cec finished his second cup of coffee he got up and left. He would always want to make another run from the plant to the quarry to be sure the trucks were all where they needed to be. If I wasn’t finished eating, I’d have to leave it or I’d get left behind. Neither seemed like a good option.

So my habit of eating fast started right there in my early teen years and is still with me more than 50 years later.