Did you ever have the news trigger a song in your head? I just did.<\/p>\n
The article: Banana truck slips on freeway<\/a><\/p>\n LONG BEACH – A box truck driver carrying a load of bananas lost control on the rain-slicked Long Beach (710) Freeway Wednesday morning, crashing through the center divider and flipping his truck.<\/p>\n Two lanes of the 710 were shut down in both directions at the Artesia (91) Freeway interchange for several hours after the crash, which occurred shortly after 9 a.m., according to the California Highway Patrol.<\/p>\n Traffic was snarled for hours in both directions as cleanup crews scrambled to contain fuel spilled on the road as well as debris scattered by the force of the impact. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n The song: 30,000 lbs of Bananas<\/a>:<\/p>\n He was a young driver, He passed a sign that he should have seen, He was picking speed as the city spread its twinkling lights below him. You know the man who told me about it on the bus, Did you ever have the news trigger a song in your head? I just did. The article: Banana truck slips on freeway LONG BEACH – A box truck driver carrying a load of bananas lost control on the rain-slicked Long Beach (710) Freeway Wednesday morning, crashing through the center divider and flipping his truck. Two Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-chum","category-lj-xfer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n It was just after dark when the truck started down
\nthe hill that leads into Scranton Pennsylvania.
\nCarrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
\nCarrying thirty thousand pounds of bananas.<\/p>\n
\njust out on his second job.
\nAnd he was carrying the next day’s pasty fruits
\nfor everyone in that coal-scarred city
\nwhere children play without despair
\nin backyard slag-piles and folks manage to eat each day
\nabout thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
\nYes, just about thirty thousand pounds of bananas.<\/p>\n
\nsaying “shift to low gear,” a fifty dollar fine my friend.
\nHe was thinking perhaps about the warm-blooded woman
\nwho was waiting at the journey’s end.
\nHe started down the two mile drop,
\nthe curving road that wound from the top of the hill.
\nHe was pushing on through the shortening miles that ran down to the depot.
\nJust a few more miles to go,
\nthen he’d go home and have her ease his long, cramped day away.
\nand the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
\nYes the smell of thirty thousand pounds of bananas.<\/p>\n
\nBut he paid no heed as the shivering thoughts of the nights
\ndelights went through him.
\nHis foot nudged the brakes to slow him down.
\nBut the pedal floored easy without a sound.
\nHe said “Christ!”
\nIt was funny how he had named the only man who could save him now.
\nHe was trapped inside a dead-end hellslide,
\nriding on his fear-hunched back
\nwas every one of those yellow green
\nI’m telling you thirty thousand pounds of bananas.
\nYes, there were thirty thousand pounds of bananas.<\/td>\n <\/td>\n He barely made the sweeping curve that led into the steepest grade.
\nAnd he missed the thankful passing bus at ninety miles an hour.
\nAnd he said “God, make it a dream!”
\nas he rode his last ride down.
\nAnd he said “God, make it a dream!”
\nas he rode his last ride down.
\nAnd he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
\nclipped off thirteen telephone poles,
\nhit two houses, bruised eight trees,
\nand Blue-Crossed seven people.
\nit was then he lost his head,
\nnot to mention an arm or two before he stopped.
\nAnd he slid for four hundred yards
\nalong the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania.
\nAll those thirty thousand pounds of bananas.<\/p>\n
\nas it went up the hill out of Scranton, Pennsylvania,
\nhe shrugged his shoulders, he shook his head,
\nand he said (and this is exactly what he said)
\n“Boy that sure must’ve been something.
\nJust imagine thirty thousand pounds of bananas.”
\nYes, there were thirty thousand pounds of mashed bananas.
\nOf bananas. Just bananas. Thirty thousand pounds.
\nof Bananas. not no driver now. Just bananas!\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"