I am currently hauling a load from WI down to Florida with some stops in TN and GA.  This evening I stopped in Lebanon, IN where there just happens to be a bar next door to the truck stop. I accidentally walked in the bar and since I found myself there I decided to go ahead and order a beer or three.

While I was sitting there conversing with the bartenders who seemed to know me for some odd reason a black fellow sat down next to me. Yes, for the PC crowd who may be shocked by this fact I did actually notice the fact that this guy was black. No, I won't call him African American as I find that to be a ridiculous term. He was black.

As the evening progressed an entertaining and quite enjoyable conversation took place between this black fellow and myself. We talked about everything from the trucking business to music to truck stop bars to racism to personal crap.

The guy is about my age so we had some very common points of reference as well as some racial and geographical differences (he's a black guy from Chicago and I am a white guy from the South). It was really fun exchanging personal experiences and observations with this guy. I found him to be quite intelligent and something of a kindred spirit. We exchanged several jokes of a racial nature as we both find them to be funny as well as telling about how people seem to view race these days.

The one thing we both had in common, besides our occupation as truck drivers, was that we both were smoking pipes. We spent a little time discussing pipes and tobaccos but over the course of the evening the conversation was mostly trucking, family issues, silly things we've seen out on the road, and the way people seem so touchy about racial things these days. The latter was a very brief discussion where we both agreed that it's just PC stupidity.

At one point, right about the time we had both decided that it was time to go back to our trucks for some sleep, this one guy came over and bought us both a drink and made some comment or other about how we had been in a "serious conversation for the past couple of hours". Is a white guy and a black guy chatting together in a bar that uncommon? I really don't think so.

I've had numerous such conversations over the years. If I find someone interesting and a good conversationalist their race doesn't even cross my mind. Either they can carry on a good conversation or they can't. Period. The guy who bought us a drink seemed to think, in my opinion at least, that it was a bit odd that people of different races should be engaged in conversation for so long. Very odd thinking, I think.

Besides, we were both pipe smokers. That's a bond that surpasses race, religion, or any other barrier. Brothers of the Briar can always find common ground.