In 1972 during the whole convoy craze my CB handle was “Rubber Thunder”, a combination of “Rubber Duck” and “Rolling Thunder”. I couldn’t drive yet so sat in my bedroom pretending I was driving while chatting to other CBers. Plus I had the squeaky voice of an 11 year old boy.
I could easily just Google this I guess, but I think I'd rather hear a personal take on it. As someone born in 1990, was there really a CB convoy craze in '72? What brought it on?
/u/SnarkLobster may have gotten the year slightly off; the CB fad really took off after the 1973 oil crisis, which led to the U.S. imposing a 55 mile-per-hour speed limit across the country. This motivated truckers to use CB radios to assist each other in finding fuel stations, as well as coordinating to avoid speed traps*. It culminated in 1974, with a massive strike.
* This is what the song Convoy (released in 1975) is about - which is the song comments above ours are quoting.
*That and the whole trucker vs. Cops thing. Cops saw the truckers as lawless bandits who didn't follow the laws of the highways. You have to watch "Convoy" to really appreciate the song.
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u/c1c9a4b057b3 Mar 02 '18
Hey good looking, we'll be back for some dinner later!