Pick-Up Beer for Truckers

Context:

The subject is a white man from Dallas, Texas. We were talking about his grandmother and his own personal family history when he told me about this custom. I live this custom because I was told it so far removed from the source culture. Modern day truckers may not know what this is, but some people who have never driven a truck in their life think of it as a ‘trucker’ thing. I think it could also be related to hobo culture which is also dying out.

 

Piece:

“There was a guy who used to live in St. Augustine, he was a drug trafficker and he had like connections to the mob, he was a scary dude. He ran a liquor store. He ran the St. Augustine liquor store, and he had um, ah I just forgotten the name of it. He would sell liquor and he had a cooler right by the door that was free beers for people going their way through you could take a beer. And there was a specific name for it, like a pick-up beer or something. Cause it was connected to truckin’ like truckers would go through there and like pick up a six-pack to make it through their thing. This was the old days, apparently this was pretty common on the roadside stops.”