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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (April 14, 1963)
MEDFOHD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFOHD. OREGON SUNDAY. APRIL 14. INS A 3 Shady Cove Grandmother Is Log Truck Driver By CLEVE TWITCHELL Mail Tribune Staff Writer If you pass a logging truck on almost any southern Ore gon highway or back road and see a woman behind the wheel, don't be surprised. It more than likely is Mickey Cooper, 42-year-old Shady Cove resident, who has been driving a logging truck for 12 years. As far as Mrs. Cooper knows, she is the only wom an logging truck driver in the Pacific Northwest, and ahe's pretty certain she is the only grandmother driving one. She has driven some thing in excess of half a mil lion miles, and is now in the process of wearing out her fourth truck. Mickey is Mrs. Alford Cooper, and she hauls for Al Cooper Logging of Shady Cove, "working for and with her husband, hauling about 1VS million board feet of logs a year. Mrs. Cooper had been in a logging truck just twice be fore she started driving one. Start New Business Her debut as a driver came about when her husband started a new type of business dealing with salvage logging. It necessitated getting a new type of truck to haul eight foot logs. The truck needed a driver. "I'm fortunate in having a husband who has taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to," Mrs. Cooper commented. Actually, Mrs. Cooper had quite a bit of contact with the lumber industry before she started driving. "My first job in the woods was at the age of 16 as a flunky in a logging camp," she explained. "We arose, another two women and I, at 4:30 in the morning to cook and serve breakfast to 75 men in the Walker-Houvey log ging camp in Eastern Ore gon." She served, made lunches, prepared vegetables, scrubbed floors and washed dishes. As the years went on she worked in a box factory, fired 8 boiler in a steam mill where all the sawdust had to be shoveled, worked on a log pond where she sawed 32 foot logs to length and fed the log slip, ran trim saws in a mill, helped to fell timber with a two-man saw and scaled logs in the woods. After her husband went to logging on his own, she learned to run a crawler type tractor and skid logs, run a fork lift and load logs, hook logs on the landing for a swing boom loader and op crate a dump truck. In the 12 years Mrs. Cooper has been behind the wheel of a logging truck, she hasn't been spared many of the ad ventures of the occupation. "I've had blow outs, brakes ; fail, loads dumped, wheels come off. trucks turn over, j rear-ends walk out from under the truck when spring hangers were left loose, logs spill out into the chains, peo ple pull out on the highway without stopping and babies I get away from their mothers and walk out into the road in front of me,' she reminisced. Spring Graduates Urged To Start College Studies Ashland-"High school grad uatcs receiving diplomas this spring should seriously con sidcr attending college during the summer," according to Dr. Bill Sampson, chairman of the education division and direc tor of summer sessions at Southern Oregon college. Such students find it easier fo make the transition be tween high school and college Study. They take fewer credit hours, classes arc smaller, al lowing for more individual at tention, and there is the op portunity of contacting people at all stages of the educational process-whether it be at un dergraduate or graduate level -and in many fields, he point ed out. Another factor to be con sidered is that most of the summer employment oppor tunities in this part of the state do not materialize, par ticularly in the fruit harvest ing period, until shortly after the summer session which be gins June 17 at Southern Ore gon college, and ends July 26. Dr. Sampson said. Openings Are Fewer Because of certain labor laws, an economy which de mands more white collar em ployees, and the impact upon the labor mart made by the increasing automation of in dustry, iob openings for high school graduates arc fewer in number each year, thus indi cating that this critical period could well be employed to at tend college, he noted. For the current year, the Oregon state system of higher education has conducted a public relations program di rectly aimed at attracting the recent secondary school grad uate to attend college as soon after receiving his diploma as possible. Members of high school vis itations teams have been stressing the need for an im mediate start on obtaining college degrees in order to prepare Oregon's young peo ple for meeting educational demands of the future. Those interested in obtain ing more information con cerning the summer offerings are asked to contact the regis trar at SOC about courses, fees, housing, transcripts, and other details. Staff Members Resign Portland -IP1 Three Port land State College staff mem bers have submitted their resignations. President Bran ford J. Millar announced Thursday. MRS. ALFORD COOPER Driven Truck for 12 Years "And several years ago while 1 was peacefully fol lowing the Cat out through the woods, a snag tree fell on ' me." Mickey also reports she s fallen off the truck, had 20 pound stakes fall on her head, been black and blue from put ; ting on and taking off chains, ! and has driven in snow, ice, 1 fog. rain, cold and heat. "She doesn't stand back and let the men do all the work," comments her hus band. "She's treated the same on the job as the other truck drivers." "In all those 12 years I've never heard any of the men swear, and I've never heard them tell any off-color stor ies." Mrs. Cooper added. Mickey says she is frequent ly asked if her husband has a truck and if so does he fol low along behind her as sort of a chaperone. "People do not understand when 1 say that he runs a logging outfit. They don't realize that he doesn't have time to chap crone me." she explained, noting that her husband has plenty to do. Running Logging Outfit Running a logging outfit in volves coordinating fallers, watching the terrain of the ground in order to log to the best advantage, maintaining skid trails and landings ahead for the cats and fallers to work up to. guarding against erosion, keeping roads open for the trucks, building wat er reservoirs for summer fire protection, keeping equipment repaired and so forth, she said. She feels she is well taken care of anyway by the sev eral hundred other truck dri vers on the road. The biggest single problem facing a woman truck driver is emotional stability, Mickey 12 YEARS BEHIND THE WHEEL - Mickey Cooper of Shady Cove, who may be the only woman logging truck driver in the North west, poses beside the truck she drives. 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"She's driv en some narrow mountain roads that would have shat tered almost anyone." her husband remarked. Now Have Fir Employees The Coopers started as just a husband and wife team in the logging business. Today they have five employees, and Mickey takes care of the busi ness when her husband is away. It is not exactly a 9 to 5 sort of job. "I come home when the truck is in shape to come home," she explained. When Mrs. Cooper began driving the logging truck, her daughter Joanne was just 11, but the family agree that the situation has worked out well. "1 learned to keep house." says Joanne. Her parents point out that she was given responsibility at an early age, learned home management, to help keep books, the mechan ics of a motor vehicle and to help in case of a forest fire. Dickenson's PRIMROSE GARDENS Giant Hybrids Wide Rang of Color On Mil. Off Highway on Old Ferry Read SHADY CO VE OREGON LUXURIOUS... 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