Double clutching is a technique I was taught when I first began to drive trucks. So many vehicles nowadays have automatic transmissions; there is no need for an understanding of the double clutch.

For those faint of heart and of some age, you may know of this procedure. Here’s how it goes. When shifting a manual transmission truck (my only personal experience) you pause between the move from one gear up to the next higher gear. For example, say you start out in creeper, the lowest gear (gear No. 1) because the truck may have a heavy load, but not necessarily. You gotta start somewhere, although creeper is not always a starting point because it is such a low gear, full of power, but no speed. Anyway, you start out in first gear, engine and transmission engaged, then run the truck speed up to where the next shift to second gear is needed.

Pop the shifter to neutral, depress the clutch pedal, rev the engine a bit, depress the clutch pedal and slide on into second gear. What this does is allow the tranny and engine to “reset,” meshing the speeds of the engine and gear box for a smoother shift.

Bill Royall always drives his dump truck this way. And when we sleep with the windows open and Bill heads out the Cozy Harbor road at some ungodly hour, I know exactly who it is by the sound of his shift. He, by the way, often drives his dump truck to the post office, grocery store, gas station and heaven knows where else, in much the same way others drive a car. He’s hard not to spot. And his truck can be seen everywhere – hauling brush, rocks, dirt stone sculptures and lumber. It is one of his hand tools, rivaled only by an aging but very productive backhoe. Bill is a tool guy!

And he needs to be. When you are messing with stone in all variety of shapes and sizes, you need as much help as you can get. Tools are designed for many applications but for a good reason. Generally, the right tools make all the difference. I know this because I too am a tool person but my jobs are far smaller than Bill’s.

Bill’s stonework is well known, but when I knew him as an ad salesperson for the Boothbay Register during the Howard Cowan years, I did not realize how skilled he really was. Ads for the newspaper are one thing, but beautiful rock walls, like the one at the head of Mill Cove, require great knowledge of the “double clutch,” the one where you clutch your chest in admiration.

Bill has been a very active supporter of the well-shaped stone art we have come to admire, sprinkled about the Boothbay region. Placing all these beauties is no easy matter and Bill has the tools, between his dump truck, backhoe and fellow stone artists. Wish my old buddy Don Meserve were still around to share some of his work. I suspect that he and Bill crossed paths over the years. The stone carving community is pretty tight.

So, the next time you are sleeping with your windows open and you hear a truck engine rev up, then die down followed by a short rev and a new gear, it well could be Bill, on his way for a morning coffee at the Southport Store, or, maybe hauling off new carved stone art. Do not fear, he’s got another gear! Bill is on the move.