I’m Still Riding Beside Him

Words: Kent Huntley

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself riding down the road in an 18-wheeler with my son. He recently got his CDL permit and is scheduled to attend a class, so he needs to get some driving time in. That day he was driving a Kenworth, and I was riding along in the passenger seat.

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous. He owns an F-350 and is very comfortable driving it, but an F-350 and a tractor-trailer are two completely different things. Sitting beside him in that Kenworth, I was very aware of just how much bigger that truck was than anything he was used to driving. He did very well, and after riding with him for a little while, I started thinking about another time I had been beside him while he was learning something new.

About 15 years ago, I was teaching this same boy how to ride a bicycle. I remember taking him out in the yard to practice because I figured the grass was probably the best place to learn. I knew sooner or later he was going to fall, and falling in the grass seemed a whole lot better than falling on pavement.

I grabbed the back of the bicycle seat and started running beside him. Anybody who has taught a kid to ride a bike probably remembers doing this. You’re running along trying to keep the bike straight, telling them to pedal, and at the same time trying not to trip over your own feet.

After a little while, I thought he had it, so I turned loose. He kept going, and I remember watching him ride probably 40 feet or so all by himself. I was thinking, He’s got it.

Then he fell over.

He jumped up, looked back at me, and said, “Dad, that’s how you kill people!” I still laugh when I think about it. Apparently, I thought he was ready for me to turn loose a little sooner than he did.

I hadn’t thought about that bicycle ride in a while, but sitting in that Kenworth beside him brought it right back. That little boy is grown now, and instead of me running behind him trying to keep a bicycle upright, I’m sitting beside him while he’s learning to drive an 18-wheeler. I can tell you, those 15 years went by a whole lot faster than I thought they would.

I guess that’s one of the strange things about raising kids. When they’re little, it seems like you’re always teaching them something: how to ride a bike, how to throw a ball, how to use a tool, how to work, and how to treat people. At the time, you don’t think much about it. You’re just doing what needs to be done, and then before you know it, you’re sitting beside a grown man driving a Kenworth.

That ride also got me thinking about how much everything else has changed in those same 15 years. Our family has changed, our company has changed, I’ve changed, and the masonry industry has changed a lot too.

We have equipment today that we didn’t have back then, and the way we communicate is completely different. We can take a picture on a job site and have it in somebody’s hands miles away almost instantly. Plans, schedules, and information move back and forth in seconds. I like a lot of it, and some of it I’m still getting used to. I have to admit, sometimes the younger guys pick up on this stuff a lot quicker than I do.

When you’ve been doing something most of your life, you get pretty comfortable with the way you do it. You know what has worked, and you’ve made enough mistakes to know what doesn’t. So when somebody younger comes along with a different idea, it’s pretty easy to say, “That’s not how we do it.” I’ve probably said that more than once, but I’m also learning that different doesn’t always mean wrong. Sometimes you have to let somebody try it.

Sitting beside my son that day made me think about that bicycle again. If I had never turned loose of that seat, he never would have learned to ride. Of course, when I did turn loose, he fell, but he got back up.

Somewhere between that day and a couple of weeks ago, things changed. I went from running behind him to riding beside him. I guess somewhere along the way that happens with our kids. You spend all those years trying to teach them, and then one day you realize you’re learning some things from them too.

Fifteen years ago, I was running through the grass with my hand on the back of my son’s bicycle seat. A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting beside him while he learned to drive an 18-wheeler.

Sitting there beside him, I realized maybe some things haven’t changed all that much. I’m still there, still watching, still hoping he makes good decisions, and I’m still ready to help if he needs me.

I’m just not holding onto the seat anymore.

And considering what he told me after that bicycle wreck 15 years ago, I’m probably better off staying in the passenger seat.

I’m Still Riding Beside Him

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