Polk County
Living
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • November 25, 2015 7A
A DREAM
COME
TRUE
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
Jim Smith, 94, took a ride of a lifetime in a new Kenworth log truck. He went with Gary Bullock on Thursday up forest roads to pick up a load of logs and bring them back down.
Smith checks off his bucket list with ride-along in truck
By Emily Mentzer
The Itemizer-Observer
WILLAMINA — The first
step into Siletz Trucking’s
log truck was about 3-feet
off the ground, nearly to Jim
Smith’s waist, but he was
determined and eager to
take a ride in the beast.
The 94-year-old put his
cane on the floor of the
cab — nearly at shoulder-
height — got his foot on
that step and hoisted him-
self up as best he could.
Siletz Trucking Assistant
Truck Boss Gary Bullock
helped support Smith and
get him into the passenger
seat safely.
“That was a big step,”
Smith said.
“We’d have gotten you up
there, even if we had to use
a lift,” Bullock said, smiling.
Thursday morning was
the day Smith got to check
off the final item on his
bucket list. The former log
truck driver got a ride-along
with Bullock in a brand new
log truck.
“The last time I drove a
log truck was August 1941,”
Smith said. “Of course I was
pretty young back then. I
didn’t want to drive any-
thing else. I just wanted to
drive a log truck.”
Smith, who lived in Mon-
mouth for 60 years before
moving to an assisted living
home in Forest Grove, start-
ed driving a truck when he
was just 8, taking hay and
wood from the fields in an
old 1918 International.
When he was 14, he took
a job for his dad, who owned
a small sawmill near Tiller.
“The truck I drove was a
Chevrolet 1939, under-pow-
ered as you would suspect,”
Smith said. “They didn’t
haul such big loads.”
Back then, Smith had to
bundle up a coat behind
him on the seat just to
reach the pedals.
“What was interesting
was the trucks did not have
any power brakes or power
steering,” Smith said. “You
had to brace yourself to
steer sometimes.”
The new Kenworth Bul-
lock took him in had all the
bells and whistles, including
cruise control.
“It was the best thing that
ever happened to me in my
old age,” Smith said after-
ward. “It was so good. The
big difference comes in the
heavy-duty equipment, 750
horsepower, power steering,
power brakes, 23 forward
speeds, and you sit up way
up high in those cabs.”
All that horsepower made
it feel like the truck wasn’t
carrying anything, in spite
of the 96,000-pound load,
New
Booksto
re
in Dallas
!
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
Jim Smith, 94, listens with amazement as Gary Bullock de-
scribes the capabilities of the rig they are about to ride in.
Smith noted.
“The truck just handles
like it isn’t there,” he said. “It
does such a good job. It was
so much safer. The old rigs
that we drove … were just an
accident waiting to happen.”
The ride was made possi-
ble by Siletz Trucking, Han-
cock Forest Management
and Gahlsdorf Logging.
Leon Fischer, president of
Siletz, said he was happy to
help make Smith’s dream a
reality.
“It’s not something we do
every day, but this is kind of
a special thing, the guy
being 94,” he said.
Greg Ellis arranged the
ride for Smith. They met
years ago in the Mon-
mouth-Independence Ro-
tary Club.
“Jim’s been in the com-
munity for years,” Ellis said.
When he said he wanted to
ride in a new log truck, Ellis
knew he could help make it
happen.
“I knew he was in his 90s
and thought, if we’re going
to do this, we better get it
done,” he said.
Smith said the ride was
the cherry on top of a
“great, long life.”
“That was it,” he said.
“That was the one thing I
hadn’t accomplished yet.”
EMILY MENTZER/Itemizer-Observer
Gary Bullock helps Jim Smith get up the tall steps to the
cab of Siletz Trucking’s Kenworth semi. Smith later said
it was harder to climb in than he expected.
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