We are a trucking and excavating business located in Gays Mills.
In 2010 we proudly celebrated our 50th anniversary.
If you've seen our trucks, you'll never forget them!!
Pink wheels = Good deals
Address:
48736 Brockway Drive, Gays Mills, WI 54631
Phone:
1-(608)-735-4758
Following is an article featured in 2010 in the Crawford County Independent Newspaper, used here by permission of Editor/Manager Charlie Pruesser:
"Brockway tradition is still going strong"
By CHARLEY PREUSSER
The party at George Brockway & Sons on Highway 131 in Gays Mills this Saturday is more than just the usual open house and customer appreciation event. This year, the party celebrates 50 years and three generations of trucking and excavating.
It started in 1960 when George Brockway bought a lime spreading truck and the business that went with it from a fellow in Richland Center, his son Jerry Brockway recalled. The business grew and the three sons Jerry, Gordie and Pat grew up to become involved with it. Their sister Theresa followed other interests. At one point, Brockway employed 30 people.
In 1990, the decision was made to sell the business and a large sale was held. People came from 35 states to bid on the equipment.
Following the sale, Jerry went on the road to work in construction. His brothers took off on their own paths. After 16 weeks, Jerry knew the construction job wasn’t for him. One of the biggest factors was being away from his wife and three daughters for extended periods of time.
“I really didn’t like working for other people,” Jerry said in recalling that summer in construction.
Jerry Brockway returned to Gays Mills and bought a lime truck and a tandem dump truck. Brockway and Sons was back in business.
BROCKWAY AND SONS will celebrate 50 years in business at their open house and customer appreciation party.
Standing in front of dad's truck earlier this week are, from left, Jerry Brockway, Nancy Brockway, Lori Brockway-Williams, Travis Williams.
Things got pretty interesting a few years later in 1992 when one of those daughters, Lori, decided she wanted to join her father hauling gravel, sand and the rest. The first obstacle she faced was her own family.
Jerry and his wife Nancy insisted Lori go to college. Lori said she “lasted a couple of months,” but knew it was not what she wanted.
However, her father wasn’t quite ready to have her start driving a dump truck. He insisted she work at some other jobs.
Lori went to work at Nelson Agri Center in Viroqua and as a waitress at the Kickapoo Inn in Readstown. Eventually, she got her chance to drive and she’s been driving and working in the business ever since.
“At first I wasn’t too much in favor of it,” Nancy remembered. “Then, I realized is was what she really wanted to do. I was behind her 100 percent, but I didn’t know if she made the right decision.”
Nancy Brockway laughs now to think of all the customers that like to see her daughter pull up in a dump truck.
When Lori first started driving, her grandfather George was concerned her long hair would get caught in machinery. She wore it up in a bun to allay his fears.
Then, there were the customers.
“Looking back over those first ten years, it was rough,” Lori recalled. “People gave me a lot of crap.”
Her best reception was from the local kids with whom she had grown up. They had more understanding for her choice to drive a truck. Most everyone else was skeptical or worse.
“Customers would look at me and think ‘she’s not going to be able to do this’.” Lori said. “Everything I did I had to prove myself. It made me better, but at the time it was very frustrating.”
While there is more acceptance of women working in traditional male jobs now, Lori is still hard pressed to name very many woman dump truck drivers.
“The way I look at it is that any woman who wants to work should have a chance,” Jerry Brockway said of the situation. “Whether it’s my daughter or anyone else.”
For Lori and her sisters, Julie and Amy, riding in the dump truck with dad was part of their life.
“This is what I grew up around,” Lori explained. She recalls fighting with her sisters about whose turn it was to ride along with dad on a Saturday. For Julie and Amy the interest of being with dad on Saturday never evolved into a desire to drive a dump truck.
Julie Wallace lives in LaCrosse and Amy Duren lives in Sauk City. Both remain interested in the family business and are expected at the open house this Saturday.
However, convincing her dad to give her a chance behind the wheel of one of his dump trucks turned out to be just the first challenge for the “little girl” who drives dump trucks.
Lori faced plenty of doubts on the road from customers and others with whom she had to work. Determined to make a go of it, she worked through the skepticism. Slowly, the doubters came to see her as a competent truck driver.
Lori is quick to credit those who helped her along the way. That included some of the middle-aged male drivers who worked for her father.
“They took the time to show me how to back up to a shouldering machine,” Lori remembered. “Instead of sitting there waiting for me to screw up, they took the time to teach me. They gave me a chance.”
Then, an event happened that changed the image of George Brockway and Sons forever. Lori decided to drive a dump truck in the annual Apple Fest Parade in Gays Mills. Naturally, it was decided she should drive her father’s truck since it was the newest.
Lori asked her dad if it would be okay to paint the wheels pink for the parade. He was fine with that. Lori did the parade in the big blue dump truck with the pink wheels and it was a big hit. So, that was that.
Well, not exactly. Jerry had to get going early the next morning and didn’t have time to repaint the pink wheels—an image was born.
Soon, the Brockways were painting more wheels pink. It’s become their trademark—the blue dump trucks with the pink wheels.
“It was her idea to begin with,” Nancy Brockway said. “It just really caught on. People enjoy it.”
Going pink was the way to go for Brockway.
“They might forget our name, but they don’t forget the color,” Jerry Brockway said with a smile. “We definitely play the pink up.”
Lori’s husband Travis Williams has become comfortable working with Brockway. He’s in his sixth year now and does a lot of the excavating work.
What does the third generation see for the future of George Brockway and Sons?
Pretty much more of the same. The amount of lime spreading versus gravel hauling or excavating may change with a changing economy or local market, but Lori and Travis are just as ready to provide the same great service her grandfather George Brockway did when he started in the business 50 years ago. So, you can plan on seeing those pink wheels rolling by for sometime to come.
What about the fourth generation?
Well, Travis and Lori have three daughters just like Jerry and Nancy did. Will Hope, Sydney or Abby wind up behind the wheel of a big blue dump truck with pink wheels? Stay tuned.
In the meantime, the public is invited to the Brockway Open House this Saturday, April 17 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at their shop located on Highway 131 and Brockway Drive. Lori promises plenty of food and drinks with a DJ playing music and a special obstacle course bounce house for the young and young at heart.
