Today is the 30th anniversary of the runaway truck down the High Street hill, December 8, 1984. It was a busy shopping Saturday in Brattleboro. Margaret MacArthur‘s song, “Stephen Johnson” tells the story. It’s available online at the VermontFolklifeCenter website. As the lyrics say, “No one was wounded and no one was killed.” I think it’s time for a memorial plaque at the River Garden (which was a Rite-Aid in 1984 with the shoppers at the cash register pretty much knowing they were going to die when the saw the truck coming at them.)
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Slip Slidin' Away
There’s an added haunted aspect to the song, which slows the event down to four minutes, when it probably flashed by in a matter of seconds in real life. Working our way lyrically down the hill, slowly and thoughtfully, adds to the drama. It is quite a decision to make in a matter of moments, and an element of gamble.
I’m guessing that everyone who has come down High Street when the roads are slick has thought, at least briefly, about what would happen if the brakes didn’t work.
So Mr. Johnson swung the truck and let it flip. Where did it end up exactly?
Was this the big beer truck spill?
I second the motion for a sign or marker of some sort. : )
The Truck
It happened during our Messiah Sing right nearby at Centre Church — we just held our 44th annual one this past Saturday, & over the years a number of events have been coincidental to it, as if linked somehow (more on that another time.) On that day, being of course a Saturday, as our gig always is, & an active downtown holiday day with lots of shoppers around, the big truck came down the hill not long before our Sing got out. We barely knew anything was going on until we came out & there was this big semi-trailer unit. It was, in my recollection, sort of “parked”, that is parallel to the curb in front of what is now River Garden.(Except not conventionally parked with its wheels on the pavement, but on its side, with, I think, the wheels staring back up the hill that had done it in.) Art had his hot dog cart right there pretty much I think where the more recent vendor has been sort of tucked into the alley.
Few more thoughts about this incredible non-event
I haven’t heard about a Brattleboro beer truck spill. It sounds more tragic and less newsworthy.
I’ve internetsearched for “Stephen Johnson truck driver”, but the name is too generic and 1984 predates internet footprints. Mary Shiminski was a cinch compared to Stephen Johnson. Then again, Mary herself did nothing illegal, but Stephen Johnson had faulty equipment and probably did not feel like a hero.
I don’t have a copy of the Reformer article from Monday, Dec. 10, 1984, but it’s on microfilm at Brooks Library and the librarians love to show people how to pinpoint stuff on microfilm. I remember there’s a photo of the truck on its side.
It would be good fun to follow up on this story, finding Stephen Johnson and getting his oral history. For instance, did he get cited for faulty equipment? This was a long, long time ago. Mr. Johnson’s truck was obviously old since the brakes were iffy. It probably predated seat belts for trucks. At the time, I was programming an IBM 360 with punch cards in a building that is now the parking lot for Advance Auto Parts on Putney Road. That 360 was sold for the salvage value of gold and platinum. I wrote stuff with the Y2K bug. This is a long, long time ago.
Couple of other things. The High Street/Main Street intersection is not perpendicular! Check it out on an online map or downtown walk. Mr. Johnson went the route with more room for a turn.
The big hero (mentioned only as “Art” in the song) is the late Art Lettieri of Westminster, known as “Art the Cart” because of his hot dog cart at the downtown intersection. He was the one who heard the truck horn and ran into the intersection to stop pedestrians and cars. He was the one who made enough room to harmlessly roll the truck. He would have looked very silly if he had been wrong about the imminent danger thing and, instead, there was simply some clown blowing an air horn. I wouldn’t have taken that chance.
smart driver
“Mr. Johnson went the route with more room for a turn.” Truck drivers are typically smart drivers. One of my Rules of Thumb is when traffic or weather is iffy, follow a truck driver. They have radios, are up higher and can see further…&c.
We’ll have to track down the photo… (if anyone is over at the library and wants to grab a copy… send it along and we’ll post it).