Hunters & Healers: Folklore Types & Topics Page: 46
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lusting cousins is most significantly attested to by his vocabulary.
Mysterious as a strange tongue and varied as the geographical re-
gions of the United States, the trucker's language is a coalescence of
the familiar and the foreign. Since a number of articles have already
been written on the vocabulary of truck drivers, it would be in order
for me to bring some of their special terms together here instead of
merely adding a few not yet noted. Bernard H. Porter,' Timothy J.
Buchanan,2 Roberta Hanley,3 and George Monterio4 have rather
fully covered the subject in various articles in American Speech.
The American Trucking Association has also brought out a pamphlet
called Truck Driver's Dictionary (Washington, D.C.). Some of the
trucker's language has been carried over from other occupations,
and some of it originated within the trucking industry.
The explanation that truck refers to a vehicle of two parts-a
trailer drawn by a tractor-is precursory to understanding other
trucking terms. As soon as the dock-walloper--one who loads and
unloads freight across a dock-secures the cargo, a driver shifts to
grandma, the lowest gear used for extra power, and is on his way.
His truck may be a cackle crate, a truck hauling poultry; a bull
hauler, which transports livestock; a bean hauler, carrying fruits and
vegetables; or a crate o' sand, a truck carrying sugar. If the driver is
a suicide jockey, he drives a nitroglycerin truck; if he has a pajama
wagon, the tractor has a sleeping compartment. A transport man
should never carry cab freight, a woman passenger; but he is allowed
to haul a swamper, a non-driving helper.
Transport trucks may have friendly fenders, broken fenders which
flap in the wind, giving the appearance of waving; may be house
broken, not leaking oil or grease; one may be a killer, a truck without
brakes. If a truck driver is good at his work, he is a chaufeur; if he
invites trouble by operating a transport without authority, he is
a moonlighter. To shoot the scales, a driver bypasses a government
weighing station with an overload, and for that violation he may
be on the pan-that is, have to appear before the Public Utilities
Commission.
There are other terms of some import to folklorists because they
indicate the process of borrowing. The words, usually with adapta-HUNTERS AND HEALERS
46
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Hunters & Healers: Folklore Types & Topics (Book)
Volume of Texan and Mexican folklore, including stories about hunting, folk medicine, ballads, religion and other folklore. The index begins on page 169.
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Texas Folklore Society. Hunters & Healers: Folklore Types & Topics, book, 1971; Austin, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38857/m1/62/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Press.