HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONS – OF THEIR WORLD PART ONE
If you get sucked into working in heavy haulage, then you’ll discover it’s something that can take over your whole being. Or as Jim Parkinson explains: “It’s like osmosis. You absorb the job through your skin and it just gets into your bones.” Don’t get us wrong, Jim isn’t complaining because even now – five years after he retired and took his leave from this demanding aspect of road haulage – his eyes still sparkle as he recalls a time where variety was literally the spice of his life.
What makes Jim’s conversion to being a heavy haulage devotee so interesting is that he fell into the job almost by accident. He had no link or connections – through the genes – to a transport life and at first his dad reckoned he should perhaps try and pick up a trade like an auto-electrician. But Jim didn’t really fancy that so instead, he in essence let fate take his hand and it’s a course of action he has never regretted.
Blackpool Boy
James William Parkinson came into the world in July 1949 to parents Dorothy and Arthur. The downside – recalls Jim with a smile – to being born and bred at Blackpool was that his dad reckoned they needn’t go anywhere for a holiday as they lived in the finest holiday resort in the world.
Jim recalls a happy enough time as a youngster and while he wasn’t destined to follow his elder brother David or younger sister Christine to University, he seemed to inherit his mother’s passion for mathematics. This ease with numbers wasn’t just
