Suddenly, toilets!
Last week the Oglet and i witnessed a truck almost stuck under a viaduct.
It made me remember a time, working at my first job at the lumberyard in Cedar lake, where I would drive along the North Shore to work every day. One day, though, I saw a truck jammed hard under the viaduct at the Monon tracks.
The sign said clearance to the 12 foot line, but the crappers were stacked to 13’9″.
Actually, it was a box truck, too tall for the viaduct, and the big iron beam had peeled back the top like a can of sardines. The truck (a relatively light truck) had buckled in the middle, now devoid of it’s supporting lid, and it had sprayed toilets all over the road. No way I was going forward, nothing for it but to take the long way around the lake.
So I did, ended up being 11 minutes late. This was a big deal, back then. The Yard foreman Roger asked me what the fuck my problem was, and I said “Crappers”. He looked at me like I had another head, and turned away.
Found out later on that it was a truckload of crappers destined for the yard where I worked.
Did they call a plumber and a septic truck?
Saw a u-tube of some trucks hitting an over pass. lots of trucks at the same spot. some peeled about 3 feet and some the whole top was gone. they have a video of a complete peel and the truck does a wheelie.
Still, seeing one with peeled crappers would take the cake.
Wonder how many of your readers get the C.W. McCall reference?
It was chickens that were stacked to 13 foot nine, and it was in downtown Pegosa Springs, Colorado, if I remember Tommy T. Halls lyrics correctly.
OK, who was it, McCall or Hall?
Paul the site you mentioned is:
http://www.11foot8.com/
I remember new driver orientation at JB, and in the slide show of beached trucks under bridges, he rhetorically asked, “Many guys say ‘I didn’t see the sign’ and might have a point, but what if the yellow sign was 40 feet wide, in huge black letters, and let’s say go the extra mile and put yellow flashing lights on either end of the sign so you HAD to look at it day or night?”
He pushed the clicker, and the very next slide was of a truck, centered under a 40 foot wide sign, in black letters, with flashers on either side, roof peeled back.
Every bridge is 11’8″ unless it vigorously states otherwise (and look to see that the pavement has not been recently asphalted, or there’s no snow on the ground, making the sign a liar).
McCall had the hit version of the song, and Wikipedia credits him with the lyrics. Take that for what it’s worth.
Tom T. Hall wrote similar humorous songs, but nothing in the trucker genre, as I recall.
It’s McCall. One of his more popular hits before the group he sang in front of repackaged theirselves as Mannheim Steamroller. Which is a bit of musical schizophrenia if I’ve ever heard any.
“before the group he sang in front of repackaged theirselves as Mannheim Steamroller”
I learned something new.
Indeed, it was CW McCall (AKA Bill Fries), Wolf Creek Pass. I had that albumn on 8-track. I still have everything else on vinyl, but nothing to play it on. Someday I’m going to get one of those USB turntables and spend a week copying all my old stuff to MP3.
For any other CW fans: http://www.cw-mccall.com/index.php