Excerpts from:
1963 White 9000 TD

By Jeff Venable, Lansing, North Carolina

While I was a kid growing up in the mountains of North Carolina, one of the most memorable things that I remember was spending my summer vacations watching the many trucks that passed by my home. I saw highway department trucks, logging trucks, and many tractor trailer rigs, hauling everything from Christmas trees to chickens. But there was one truck that stood out from all the rest—a 9000 White that always pulled a huge D-7 Cat dozer. This truck, which had a 220 Cummins motor with straight pipe exhaust, really sounded better than any of the other trucks in our area. On a quiet day I could hear this old White making its way up the winding mountain road that passed by our house.

It always amazed my mom and dad that I knew the truck by its sound and could recognize it from two miles away. The driver would always catch another gear and blow his air horn, and always gave me a friendly wave when he passed by. Then one day, along came the White as usual, but this time it stopped at the neighbor’s house. Up the road I went as fast as I could go to check out this truck at close range. The driver helped me up into the seat and I got to blow the horn. Wow! This was the most exciting day that I could remember. I watched him slowly unload the huge dozer and for the next hour, grade off a place to build a new barn.

But, wait, it gets better. Around lunch time he came over and told me to ask my mom and dad if I could ride back into town with him to get his front end loader. So back down the road I ran again. Convincing Mom and Dad to let me go was not an easy task, but they finally gave in. At last! I got to ride in that old White. . . .

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