Octogenarian trucker has spent his life on the road

Alan Ehnat has spent his life on the road. But even the spry 87 year old shook his head in surprise when he added up the years and found it had been more than six decades behind the wheel. Asked about mileage? Let’s just say millions. A Long Island, N.Y. native, Ehnat says he wanted to drive a truck since age five. He actually started behind the wheel in 1956 at age 24, shortly after returning from military service as a Navy Seabee in Morocco and Cuba. Over the course of his long career, which, by the way has not ended, he has driven pick-up trucks to rigs that were, with the tractor, nearly 70-feet long. Just out of the service and engaged to Mary (his wife for the past 64 years), Ehnat needed a job that paid a living wage so he could purchase a home and start a family. That job turned out to be right in his home town of Locust Valley, N.Y. — driving a truck for Keyco Motor Freight, where he worked for 19 years delivering general freight into New York and New Jersey.