LEFT ARM TAN
What's all the fuss about this Chicago-area truck driver
whose face on the left side shows advanced wrinkling from sun damage?
Sheesh! Dangling your elbow out the window and getting a left arm tan has long been a badge of honor for long-haul truckers.
The first time I heard the phrase, "left arm tan," was back in the early 1980s. I was driving my dream rig, an '82 Peterbilt, somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
An anonymous voice on the CB radio said he was just toolin'
along working on his left arm tan. He was, of course, alluding to draping your
left wing out the driver's window in a carefree manner.
In both the recent news story and in my road novel, "Roll
On," it's the grandchildren who first notice the left arm tan, or left
side of the face tan.
Here are some comments from "Roll On" in which the kiddos are amused by
their two-toned Grandpa Truck.
"Grandpa, your arms are different colors . . . . One's brown like Miss Sanchez and one's white
like Miss Churchill."
"You look like a zebra with one stripe."
"You look like opposite man. A man who has opposite
color arms for doing opposite things. This one's for talking on the CB to
truckers who sound funny."
"And this one's for shifting big gears—rumm,
rumm."
"If I was a truckin' man, I'd be a gear jammer with a
one-arm tan..."
"You can see the prairie dust whistling past an open
car window as it blasts down a wide open highway. This is
hang-your-arm-out-the-window music that nourishes your soul."
My left arm remained orange for a week. Wouldn't come off
with Ajax.
The Southpaw - Cedar Park, Texas.
