[Keith Seymore]

Actually, I had two uncles that drove for Boutell: my Dad's Uncle Hal also quit farming and came to Michigan to drive a truck.

He had a regular route that he used to prefer, leaving from Flint early in the week and heading east. Part of the trip was relatively hilly terrain but, as I say, he used to make the trip regularly.

One time he was driving through there and the brakes went out on the truck. You can imagine that was not fun, but not insurmountable, since you can merely downshift a manual trans and control your speed.

Unless you break the drive shaft....which is exactly what happened next.

Now things get exciting: He was picking up speed, swerving to stay on the road while riding this "out of control" truck down the hill. He did make it to the bottom safely and coasted a short distance back up the other side but, since he still didn't have any brakes, the truck started rolling backwards down the hill. In an effort to get the truck stopped he cut the wheel to the left which of course steered the trailer to the right, sending it and the load of shiny new Buicks over the side, him jumping safely out of the cab at the last minute.

As he trudged back to the last town, dejectedly, he thought "...man, I'm gonna lose my job fer sure."

Turns out he didn't lose his job: he was given a Teamster's commendation for safe driving and a pay raise, since no one was injured in the incident...