They call him Lurch.
He towers over Cabbage Patch, Tiffany and other would-be truckers as he climbs out of the cab of an 18-wheeler on a sunny morning.
Carl Wallin, alias Lurch, just tasted a dream come true. The 20-year-old Elburn resident raises his fists in the air and smiles.
”Yeah, I was feeling good,” said Wallin after he drove a 37,000-pound semitractor trailer truck for the first time on the road. ”Driving a big piece of equipment is a thrill.”
As a former construction worker and landscaper, Wallin never passed up an opportunity for a ride on a truck. He has wanted to be a trucker since he was a child.
But when reality set in, Wallin wasn`t afraid to admit he was a bit anxious about climbing behind the wheel.
Other newly baptized drivers, dressed in the truckers` uniform gear of baseball caps, sunglasses, T-shirts and jeans and armed with colorful
”handles” to identify themselves over the CB radio, agreed.
”It`s scary, real scary,” said Tiffany Evertsen, a 25-year-old mother of three. ”I guess everything we were taught came through, at least subconsciously.”
Wallin, Evertsen and 14 other drivers are students in Elgin Community College`s Truck Driving Program.
Since the program began last August, about 100 men and women have studied four hours a day, five days a week for 16 weeks to become certified Class A truck drivers.
ECC and Parkland Community College in southwestern Illinois are the only two community colleges in the state to offer a truck driving course, said Donald Kinzy, divisional dean of the program.
After six weeks in the classroom, students must pass written and physical exams, and a drug screening test, before they receive their permit.
By the end of the $2,100 course, the drivers haul 57,000 pounds of goods before passing the state test for their commercial license.
Safety is the watchword of the classes and just what Jeff Thirtyacre, whose handle is Cabbage Patch, wanted to learn.
His uncle and cousin died when their tractor-trailer overturned during a thunderstorm in Kentucky.
”It`s sad because they died young, but it doesn`t scare me,” said Thirtyacre, who plans to apply what he`s learned to prevent accidents.
On disability from a job with Firestone, Thirtyacre`s boss told him to look for a more fruitful line of work.
His first time on the road, Thirtyacre, a 26-year-old Spring Grove resident, found downshifting 9 gears at certain r.p.m.`s harder than he thought.
”It`s absolutely different than driving a car. It`s breathtaking when you get behind the wheel.”
Shifting gears is a way a life for Evertsen, a divorced mother of three.
”My self-esteem was knocked down by my husband. I have to step into a man`s shoes to support a man`s family.”
At first, Evertsen, the only woman in the class, felt intimidated by the thought of driving a truck. Since then the McHenry resident gained the respect and support of her classmates and a $10.50-per-hour job offer.
Hopes of finding work lured 36-year-old Pat Kyle of Elgin to switch careers. After mailing more than 500 resumes, the computer operations supervisor hasn`t found work since he was laid off more than a year ago.
The future is bright for well-trained truckers, said Jerry D`Isa, program director. Beginning drivers haul in $25,000 their first year and more than $40,000 after five years of experience.
Getting a job ”isn`t a problem,” D`Isa said. ”If they want work, they can get it.”
That`s just what Wallin is hoping for. ”People don`t give (truckers) a lot of credit,” he said, ”but it`s a good career.”
