Remember Cb Radios Back When

My partner and I owned a car rental company located in South Florida. This was in the late 60s and early 70s. A significant portion of our business was from travel agents. We each made trips twice a year to personally visit and thank these agents for their support. My area was from Milwaukee, Wisconsin over to Cleveland, Ohio down to Cincinnati, Ohio and everything in between.

Having the need to give out a lot of brochures and not with standing the fact that we couldn't afford to fly we used our rental cars. These were equipped with AM radios for entertainment. Everyone that has traveled over the open road knows that using this medium for entertainment is at best, frustrating.

Having a sense of humor and to amuse myself I would tell myself the punch line of a joke I knew. I probably had told the joke a hundred times before and if I laughed at the punch line I then told myself the entire joke. This was my entertainment during the long drive.

Now I should mention that my wife at the time didn’t mind me being gone for the week as long as we went out Saturday night. Which we did and getting home about 10 in the evening I would change my clothes, throw my suitcase in the car and proceed to drive 18 to 20 hours non stop to the furthest city on my travel plans. I would arrive Sunday afternoon ready to see my first travel agent early Monday AM.

In light of the above one can imagine how boring the drive was especially in the dead of the night. Then I heard about Citizen Band radios. I can’t tell you how my world changed and for the better. Not that I had a “motor mouth,” loved the expressions, but I was always available to assist other drivers with pertinent information. You could count on me if I saw a Smokey or a traffic problem. And I welcomed receiving the same information. My handle was Brain Damage which was my defense if I said something stupid.

Besides the usual banter once in a while there was some humor. One day I had an hour drive along the interstate in Ohio and listened in on two drivers. After about 10 minutes of them going back and forth one says, and we’ll call him Young Dude, “Hey good Buddy give me a 10-36.” Now don’t beat up on me but after 35 years I think 10-36 is the code for “what is the time.”

The other guy, Older Guy, “Ain’t you the young Dude in the blue rig that passed me about 10 miles ago?”

Young Dude, “Thanks for the compliment. Yeh that’s me.”

Older Guy, “No I ain’t going to give you a 10-36.”

In disbelief the Young Dude asks, “Well why not?”

Older Guy, “Well if I give you the time we are going to get friendly. You’re going to want to stop and get coffee at the next truck stop. I’m going to get friendly and talk about my family. I’ll even show you some pictures. You’ll see that I have two young good looking daughters. You probably will want to date one of them. Maybe even get married.”

Young Dude, “Sounds good to me. What’s wrong with that.”

Older Guy, “ Well I don’t want a son-in-law who can’t afford a watch.”

I didn’t run off the road but that made my day.