#922 Getting a trucker to blow their horn

Truckers have the best horns.

Those things mean business. They’re loud and thundering and slap you in the face. None of this itty bitty bee-beep business that sounds less like a hatchback telling you the light turned green and more like a seagull telling other seagulls hey, there’s a guy throwing away crusts over here.

‘Cause sometimes when you’re driving down the highway the hours just keep going and going and going. The mix tape gets old, the conversation dies down, and it’s just a blur of interstate walls and rest station signs out the window. For kids, it must seem like days back there, just strapped right in, fighting with siblings, or just sitting in absolute numbing silence.

That’s why getting a trucker to blow his horn is great. It’s a fun, little interactive break the from the highway monotony and a great laugh. Plus, it’s a time-passer, because you have to get the driver to sort of ease up beside the truck first, which isn’t always easy. So yeah, it’s a nice secret moment on wheels, a honkin’ highway holla, just some good old fashioned bonding in the fast lane.

So let’s give thanks to truckers today. For not taking life too seriously, for indulging our simple pleasures, and for rocking that air horn in a way we like to call

AWESOME!

37 thoughts to “#922 Getting a trucker to blow their horn”

  1. Cute video! When I was a kid, it was even more exciting to get the trucker to honk without our parents realizing what we were doing. Then my dad would be all “why is that trucker honking at me?” and we would all be laughing our guts out.

  2. Truck horns are cool, but the most AWESOME thing mentioned in this post is the MIX TAPE. Forget the economic crisis, the loss of the mix tape is a real tragedy; CD burners and iPods have ruined everything – they are the AIG and Merrill Lynch of taking different songs from different albums and putting them together.

    Think back to 1996, and all of the things (pressing the record and play button at the same time, high-speed dubbing, that little piece of tape that you pasted to the cassette, the card you filled out for the case) that had to happen to make a mix tape. It took forever. But later that week, when you were out running with your walk-man, or riding in your girlfriend’s car, and Mark Morrisson’s “Return of the Mack” smoothly transitioned into Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” – AWESOME. (drwizard.wordpress.com)

  3. This is one of those things that has never changed. Kids love to hear the trucks horn and truckers love to oblige the kids. When I was a kid, me and all my friends wanted to be truckers….because they were cool. They still are too!

  4. My fave is when you flash your high beams to tell the trucker ahead of you he’s clear to change lanes in front of you and he flashes his lights to say, “Thanks”.

  5. “For kids, it must seem like days back there, just strapped right in, fighting with siblings, or just sitting in absolute numbing silence.”
    I am ten years old and an only child, so the numbing silence is SO FRICKIN’ TRUE!!!

    1. You’re 10 years old and you’re on here?

      Wow. I wasn’t even aware the net existed when I was 10.

      How the world grows up fast.

  6. Last year a ciuty Garbage Truck did me the honor’s when I gave the universal sign asking to blow thier horn. They obliged and it was a really cool thrill. I checked it off on my things to do list.

  7. men i love to do this.. we always had to cycle 20 km to school (yeah on a bike americans thats how we do it in holland) and i was almost as good in doing this as my hot female friend…awesome!

  8. I remember when I was in 4th grade on a field trip to the children’s science museum. There was this trucker that the bus would drive pass and we passed it about 5 or 6 times and the driver would honk the horn each time. I loved that horn.

  9. At one of the placed I lived me and my sister ahd to wait by the side of a road for the school. So when we were standing there one of our favourite ways to pass the time was to get truckers to honk their horn. Whenever they did it was a great victory, sometimes we would give them a big thumbs-up, other times it would be the trusty high five to each other, and then there was throwing our arms up in the air and cheering. Truly was awesome

  10. This is awesome! I recently went on a RV trip with my family and me and my younger sister did this the whole way there. Mind you there were the mean truckers who pretended not to see us, but there were those few that did, and man did they make that trip so much better!

  11. My father drove over a million miles and I have so much respect for truck drivers. My kids still do the “horn” gesture to trucks when we are on the highway.

  12. Bummer. While riding the bus to a school field trip, we were not allowed to do this because it was said to cause accidents. :(

  13. On a trip once my friends and I managed to get a train passing slowly by to sound their horn at us. It easily made our whole day

  14. When I was in elementary school, there was a day when a bunch of us decided to make “honk if you love” signs for the upcoming hockey game. The cars went by and the cars honked, and we loved it.

    But then the semi came by and honked and wow, it was awsome!

  15. i tried to do this a couple of days ago despite my looking like an idiot but the stupid truck driver didn’t even notice :( just my luck

  16. Many, many years ago, while on a roadtrip with our Grandparents, my sister and I got a trucker to pull the cable for his horn. What followed, was kind of epic, and the highlight of our day, EVERY single truck within hearing range, honked their horn as well.
    I gotta say, it was AWESOME!

  17. Cheers for the high-quality resources enclosed throughout your site, this is a small quiz for your blog page viewers. Exactly who proclaimed the following quote? . . . .A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

  18. CC. was my first born; her favorite uncle was a trucker who’d blow the horn as he turned the corner, after his long haul. The kids loved it!!
    As she learned to talk, we had many “Little Miss-understanding’s.” One of the most embarrassing being when she’d yell out, “Mommy, big *uck! Unca’s big….” repeatedly, when we were in public transit, while onlookers furrowed and frowned, and I froze! If only I knew what I’d later learn, this is the norm in speech development.
    Let this be a lesson people, Truck is pronounced *uck, by most learning to talk. And when they blow their horns, it’s really awesome too!

  19. Haha this reminded me of my recent trip to Colorado with my mom. On the way there it was sooo boring, so I started to make a video on my mac recording me dancing to the radio and occasionally waving at truckers when we’re passing them. I think about 20 of them honked their horns. :)

  20. Back in sixth grade, we were all on the school bus for a field trip. It was incredibly boring, until we saw a huge truck. My friend freaked out and got the whole right side of our bus doing the “honk your horn” thing. When the trucker obliged, we all burst into cheers and laughter. Good times, man, good times.

  21. Pingback: jalia parsnip

Comments are closed.