Bridge Ices before Roadway

Life “is like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

— E. L. Doctorow

I’m parked at the Portage Service Area off I-80 in western Ohio, balancing my laptop on my legs, and every tractor trailer that enters the rest stop passes right in front of me: Dominion, AmeriFreight, Prime, ITS Logistics, and so on.

One of the trucks that passed by about half an hour ago was hauling tandem FedEx trailers and was driven by David, a tall and affable man of 63, missing a few teeth but still quick to smile, and possessed of a surprising history. 

When he was younger, David wanted to become a professional football player.

“I played five years at Kent State,” he says. “I had an academic scholarship — I was a walk-on — offensive center — and, uh, I didn’t make it” to the NFL. 

That’s not the surprising part. 

After college, he took a series of jobs and went back to school at night.

“I picked up a master’s degree in education, industrial arts teaching, and English,” as well as a CPA. He taught in Appalachia, then worked in the Middle East, teaching critical thinking and problem solving in the United Arab Emirates. He also married a Filipino woman.

Then life pulled him back to Cleveland, where he had grown up, but he needed to find work.

He was drawn in by an ad for a school training professional drivers.

“My wife said, ‘You should go there. You like to drive.’ And now, here I am talking to you, five, six years later,” and driving for FedEx.

“I have a very good boss,” he says. “He pays us well. He treats us well. I landed on my feet.”

And he flashes another smile.