Race? I must be hearing wrong...

Boy's been running in the sun too long - only place he's racin' to is the doctor!

Every once in a while I have a line from a song stuck in my head that makes me smile.  Bobby Bare put out a song years ago called "The Jogger".  It's sung from the perspective of an over the road truck driver. He's been at it for 20 years from the Charleston coast to the Jersey piers and he sings about how he's shared the road with race car nuts and loggers.  Everyone from Sunday drivers to Scouts on hikes to Hell's Angels on Harley bikes but never met a roader he didn't like.

Except them joggers!

I have to quote some of the lyrics here:


One day I'm rollin' down 1-0-1
I got 18 wheels under 14-tons
Radio playin' a good ol' country rocker
The day was sure a trucker's dream
The sky was sunny and the air was clean
When up ahead on the road I seen one of them joggers

He was dressed like they do in baby blue
With shortie shorts and a headband too
I yelled Sweetie I bet that you are the hit of the men's room locker
But I'm a runnin' late with an overload
So get your Adidas off a this road
I'm LA bound and I don't slow down for dead raccoons or joggers

Now obviously this isn't the most politically correct way to approach a person sharing his road.  You might even call it stereotyping and rude.

Exactly.

Things continue on and the driver is challenged to a race - hence my title and the first line of this post - the one that always makes me smile.

Time and distance pass and here we are:

Well I could've left him far behind
But I played with him like a fish on a line
And I stayed about a half a mile behind that sucker
Then I pushed her up to forty-five
And he sees me comin' and he starts to fly
So I pushed her to sixty and shift to high and finally catch that jogger
And it wasn't easy

Now I'm doin' eighty and I turned to check
And he's stayin' right with me neck in neck
His hearts a thumpin' like my engine goin' pop pop pocker
Then he yells out I hope you're set
Cause I ain't shifted into second yet
Then he unwinds and leaves me behind eaten the dust of a jogger

Obviously this driver has taken on a more difficult challenge than he expected:

Then I see him joggin' up into the sky
And he yells hey thanks for the exercise
I hope that losin' this race was not too shockin'
Ya see my dad says heaven's no place to run
and I try to be an obedient son
So I have to come down to earth to do my joggin'

Now do I actually believe that the good Lord would send his son down here in baby blue shorts to go jogging and race a truck driver?  Probably not.

But the lesson is clear:

Well that's my story take it or leave it
My trucker buddies they believe it
So do those race car nuts and Harley hoggers
And I'm still drivin' much the same
Cept I don't call nobody names
And I tip my hat each time I pass one of them good old joggers

Hey here comes one now... Hey good buddy
How ya doin?
Want some gatorade?

I think the point I am trying to make here is that if we judge someone or something or even a situation through the lens of our preconceptions we are sometimes apt to miss a real truth.  That if we can appreciate everyone from the Sunday drivers in our lives all the way to the "Harley hoggers" that we may or may not have anything in common with, then perhaps the guy in the baby blue short shorts isn't so strange after all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16KG1g2frwk

Looks like you have to copy and paste to get this link to work!