This song is about a railroad trestle that spanned Plum Creek in St. Cloud Minnesota
Lyrics
The trestles washed out took out the tracks
Nobody's getting hides from the rendering plant
It's all covered up with mud and brush
The grumpy old man has run out of luck
The trestles washed out with all that rain
I ain't heard a word
When it'll be back up again
Folk say good riddance let it all burn down
Kids are running wild and they ain't coming home
There isn't a shortcut across plum Creek pass
You have to cross down there in a poison ivy patch
The thistles are as big as apples on a tree
Lord knows what will be waiting for me
The trestles washed out
And the hammock that I lay
Tied to the ties
Slept in at while it swayed
It was a right of passage but the wrong thing to do
A wager from my friends but who's fooling who
I heard the train echo a low rumbling sound
Swinging in my coffin 30 ft off the ground
I took a hit of pigweed I found behind the church
Nestled in the gooseberries waiting for it to work
I could feel the bridge shaking shedding concrete from the lamb
Giving up a sacrifice I wasn't even a man
Held on for what it's worth Wheels grinding in the groove
Sparks flying off the metal made me want to move
The trestles washed out took out the tracks
Nobody's getting hides from the rendering plant
It's all covered up with mud and brush The grumpy old man has run out of luck