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NeighborsBy Tanjie Nashanclife@pclnet. net In 1944, Villard Robertson met and fell in love with Hazel Smith.He was 17 years old and a truck driver by trade. Sixty years and six children later, Villard Robertson, at age 76, is still hauling goods.These days, the hauls are short, unlike the years he and Hazel spent zig-zagging the country as a big-rig team.“Me and her run to California and back for 10 years,” Mr. Robertson said. “We've been through 46 states and she’s got ceramic plates from every one.” Normally on display on high shelving around her kitchen, Mrs. Robertson said the plates are now in storage.-They’re still boxed up from when we moved,” she said.The couple live on Holt Road near the rural Oakdale community, having sold their home on busy Alabama 127 in Athens last year.“There was just so much racket and we had the chance to sell so we did,” Mr. Robertson said. “We like it out here. It’s nice and quiet.”The couple raised their children both in Athens and in the West Limestone community, where they also farmed cotton and ran a saw mill during the 1950s.“Back then I was short-distance driving out of Birmingham,” Mr. Robertson said. “We sold the saw mill in 1961 and I bought a truck and went on the road.” The rest, as the saying goes, is history. And as with anyone's history, the Robertsons have stories to tell.There’s the time they were hauling chickens to Missouri and their directions led them to a large, dark opening in the side of a mountain. They show photos from this venture and describe the awe they felt at driving into a mountainside.“They had whole factories just built right inside there,” Mrs. Robertson said. “It was cooler in there so they didn't have to worry too much over refrigerating the chickens.”There’s the time Mr. Robertson got a ticket (sort of) for not having a fire extinguisher mounted on his rig.“I was out in California and I was carrying a load of fire extinguishers,” he said. The DOT inspector came along there at a truck stop and gave me a ticket for not having a fire extinguisher on my truck. I didn't even know I was supposed to have one but the law don’t excuse you for ignorance.”It was Mr. Robertson’s joking with the inspector that got him off the hook.“I said, isn’t this something. I’ve got a load of them here and I’m getting a ticket for not having one,’” he said. “That inspector didn’t realize that’s what 1 was hauling and he thought it was so funny that he was ticketing for not having one mounted that he changed the ticket.”Another incident, which brings tears to Mr. Robertson’s eyes, led him to attend church services with his family.It was 1993 and he was en route to Bowling Green. Ky., with a load of tires.“I pulled over for a minute near Nashville and w'hen 1 stepped out I didn’t know it but the truck was still moving,” he said. “The truck dragged me down the interstate.”Before he managed to free himself he suffered a gash on his upper arm when he became entangled in one of his rig’s tires.“My arm was mashed up pretty badNews-Courier/Tanjie NashAbove, Villard and Hazel Robertson stand in front of his pickup truck outside their home near theOakdale community. Until three years ago, Mr.Robertson's 18-wheeler was also stationed outside the couple's home whenever he wasn't on the road. That’s when Robertson, 76, sold his big rig and went to work on shorthauls for Wal-Mart. At right the Robertson’s stand in front one of Mr.Robertson's first business vehicles. When the couple met in 1944, he wasalready a truck driver andhas been criss-crossing U.S. highways ever since. The Robertsons, whodrove loads to and from California as a team for 10 years, have two daughters, Brenda Kyle and Cindy Stanford, and four sons, Randy, Lewis, Monte and Rocky. All four sons are truck drivers by trade.“There’s one in Brooksville, Fla., whois 83 years old,” he said.He plans to keep driving until I’m a danger to someone else’s health or to my own.”An attempt at retirement w hen he was 65 didn’t work out.It lasted about three weeks,” he said. When you’ve been driving all your life, your foot gets hot if you try to sit still.” Staying active, he said, is a key element to a happy life.You just have to keep moving.” he said. “And the most important thing in life is the good Lord.”said. “A lot of people might not believe it but when I was holding on to that truck I looked up and it looked like I seen angels. I knew that was my last chance to accept the good Lord.”He now serves as a deacon at New Oakland Baptist Church.“She prayed for 48 years that I’d accept the Lord,” he said of his wife. “Now I’m a deacon.”After selling his big rig three years ago Mr. Robertson began driving short hauls for Wal-Mart, where his son Randy also works. He said he is the second-oldest driver for the company.but when 1 got loose I realized that my truck was jackknifing along the interstate and I knew that if somebody else came along right then they might get killed,” he said. “So I ran after it and got in it and got it off the road.”He wrapped up his injured arm and finished the trip to Bowling Green before seeking medical attention.Earlier in 1993 he’d had open heart surgery and was back on the road within six weeks. Though that was a frightening experience, he said, it was the incident near Nashville that changed his outlook. “I knew it was my last chance,” heCourtesy photoVillard Robertson poses with his son Randy in a lot at a Wal-Mart distribution center. Both father and son are truck drivers for the company.News-Courier/Tanjie NashVillard and Hazel Robertson reminisce over photographs from the 10 years they spent driving long haul trips together.
Newspaper Details
Athens News Courier
Athens, Alabama, US
Sun, Jun 22, 2003
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USA 26 Apr 2018
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