Piano Story

Alan said that I should put some of my favorite stories in my blog.  Here is one I told him recently:

When I lived in the DC suburbs near Upper Marlboro, MD, I used to drive the Old Marlboro Pike to work at Eugene Burroughs Jr. High in the country near Accokeek, MD.  The Pike was a narrow, curvy road, but actually quite lovely.  One day I happened to be following a pickup truck carrying an upright piano on wheels.  The piano was just long enough to be on the truck with the tailgate down.  It was tied to the truck, but a piano is very heavy, so you can guess what happened: As I followed, I saw the piano start rolling forward and backward.  Frantically honking my horn didn't alert the driver, so I dropped back to witness the inevitable.  As the truck maneuvered the curves on the Pike at about 30 MPH, it happened: The piano rolled right off the back of the truck, literally exploding in a huge mangle of wood and piano wire when it hit the road. It was a spectacular mess, covering the entire road with the piano wire.  I was in a VW so was able to edge by on the shoulder.  But I will never forget the dismayed, confused looks of the driver and his helper as they stood and surveyed the results of their stupidity.