Storrowed

It happens throughout the year, at random times. A feckless, hapless truckdriver tries to drive under an overpass bridge on Boston's Storrow Drive and gets stuck. Depending on how far in they get, they may even manage to strip the entire roof off their truck.

Oopsie doopsie.

Sometimes the truck driver is a pro, driving a "real" truck, but metaphorically asleep at the wheel. More often than not, however, the driver is an amateur, a DIY mover with a rent-a-truck from U-Haul, Ryder, or Penske.

We've even got a name for it: a truck got storrowed.

While it can happen any time during the year - and, believe me, it does - it always happens in late August and early September. Leases are up on September 1st. And lots and lots and lots of students are on the move. 

(This time of year also has its own name, Allston Christmas. Allston is a Boston neighborhood heavily populated by students and recent grads. It's Christmas because there are supposedly real finds put out in the trash. I'm skeptical about just what sorts of goodies are being junked by exiting BU and BC students, but one student's trash is another student's treasure. Maybe you can fix up that dresser with a missing drawer. Maybe you could use that wastebasket, that ratso bath mat. I did find a blue and white ceramic jar that someone in my building had put out on trash day, and I found a good home for it in front of my fireplace. But this wasn't in Allston, it was on Beacon Hill, where we have nothing but the finest trash. Only kidding. Students aside, September 1 is a BIG moving day. I walked along Charles Street before the trash was picked up and saw lots of pretty unsavory looking discards out there...)

Back to storrowing, on September 1st, a U-Haul got storrowed.

State officials said the top of a U-Haul collided with the North Harvard Street

bridge, on Soldiers Field Road, just before 11 a.m. Thursday. Photos and videos from the scene showed the roof of the vehicle peeled back, exposing a pile of cardboard boxes and assorted furniture inside.

Traffic was briefly stopped on the road’s eastbound side while the truck was safely removed from the area. All lanes of traffic reopened just after noon, officials said. There were no reported injuries and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, following an inspection, said the bridge was not damaged. (Source: Boston Globe)

It's not as if this and all the other storrowed truck drivers weren't warned. There are warning signs all over the place. 

We are not known for our clear and adequate signage. Most major thoroughfares do not have street signs telling you what street your on. Sure, the side streets are (mostly) marked, but it's up to you to know you're on Comm Ave or Mass Ave or Beacon Street. (Does this happen other places, or is this a local thing?) And there are goofy direction signs like one in town (along a street that I believe is an unmarked part of Route 9) that points west and just says "Providence." Good luck getting to Providence based on this sign. Better remember to turn left at Greenland, or you'll end up in Worcester. 

Even local brands like Trillium Brewing, which produces a double IPA called “Storrowed,” has used its clout to dissuade people from bringing large trucks onto those roads to avoid getting stuck.

It's not just Storrow Drive you need to avoid.  As the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation tweeted “That moving truck or van won’t fit on Storrow Drive, Soldiers Field Road, or Memorial Drive in Cambridge! Find a different route and avoid a collision with an overpass!”

The tweet came out after the latest move-in collision with reality. And it's not as if most of the feckless, hapless truck drivers are following the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. 

That aside, it does seem ridiculous that this storrowing happens so frequently. Just another bit of local color, I guess.