Fella says once that truck skinners eats all the time—all the time in hamburger joints along the road.”
“Sure seem to live there,” Joad agreed.
“Sure they stop, but it ain’t to eat.
They ain’t hardly ever hungry.
They’re just goddamn sick of goin’—get sick of it.
Joints is the only place you can pull up, an’ when you stop you got to buy somepin so you can sling the bull with the broad behind the counter.
So you get a cup a coffee and a piece pie.
Kind of gives a guy a little rest.” He chewed his gum slowly and turned it with his tongue.
“Must be tough,” said Joad with no emphasis.
The driver glanced quickly at him, looking for satire.
“Well, it ain’t no goddamn cinch,” he said testily. “Looks easy, jus’ settin’ here till you put in your eight or maybe your ten or fourteen hours.
But the road gets into a guy.
He’s got to do somepin.
Some sings an’ some whistles.
Company won’t let us have no radio.
A few takes a pint along, but them kind don’t stick long.” He said the last smugly. “I don’t never take a drink till I’m through.”
“Yeah?” Joad asked.
“Yeah!
A guy got to get ahead.
Why, I’m thinkin’ of takin’ one of them correspondence school courses.
Mechanical engineering.
It’s easy.
Just study a few easy lessons at home.
I’m thinkin’ of it.
Then I won’t drive no truck.
Then I’ll tell other guys to drive trucks.”
Joad took a pint of whisky from his side coat pocket.
“Sure you won’t have a snort?” His voice was teasing.
“No, by God.
I won’t touch it.
A guy can’t drink liquor all the time and study like I’m goin’ to.”
Joad uncorked the bottle, took two quick swallows, recorked it, and put it back in his pocket.
The spicy hot smell of the whisky filled the cab.
“You’re all wound up,” said Joad. “What’s the matter—got a girl?”
“Well, sure.
But I want to get ahead anyway.
I been training my mind for a hell of a long time.”
The whisky seemed to loosen Joad up.
He rolled another cigarette and lighted it.
“I ain’t got a hell of a lot further to go,” he said.
The driver went on quickly,
“I don’t need no shot,” he said.
“I train my mind all the time.
I took a course in that two years ago.” He patted the steering wheel with his right hand. “Suppose I pass a guy on the road.
I look at him, an’ after I’m past I try to remember ever’thing about him, kind a clothes an’ shoes an’ hat, an’ how he walked an’ maybe how tall an’ what weight an’ any scars.
I do it pretty good.
I can jus’ make a whole picture in my head.
Sometimes I think I ought to take a course to be a fingerprint expert.
You’d be su’prised how much a guy can remember.”
Joad took a quick drink from the flask.