# I've been inside the Colonial Pipeline **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 11, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836 "2021-05-11T13:33:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/1 "2021-05-11T13:33:24Z")
It just dawned on me that this qualifies as a pretty rare touch with fame, if mundane and pointless. The pipeline runs through the corner of the southeastern Pennsylvania real estate I grew up on, and it gained a pipe during the 1960s. The construction project was what they call an “attractive nuisance” to the little children who lived around it, what with trenching machines, heavy equipment, and all those pipe sections. Not surprisingly, when I got the chance, I crawled into the end of the pipe, though I didn’t go very far because it quickly gets dark and spooky in there. The sections of pipe they have staged along the route, being open at both ends, were less spooky and better lit, so I crawled through some of them too. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/2 "2021-05-11T14:29:19Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > when I got the chance, I crawled into the end of the pipe, though I didn’t go very far because it quickly gets dark and spooky in there. Did a clown offer you a balloon? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/3 "2021-05-11T15:05:08Z")
Did you run into an escaped prisoner named Andy? ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/4 "2021-05-11T16:39:03Z")
A section of the pipeline ran through our part of rural Maryland, not 200 yards from our house, when I was a kid in the sixties. We ran through the open sections of pipe, too (entertainment options were very very basic at that time). ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/5 "2021-05-11T16:46:19Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Did a clown offer you a balloon? You’ll float too. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/6 "2021-05-11T16:54:25Z")
Did you bring a saxophone? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/p8GcHoSIPDg/maxresdefault.jpg "ARMIN KÜPPER | PIPELINEFUNK - concert / Saxophone jamsession & crazy natural echo from the pipeline") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8GcHoSIPDg) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/7 "2021-05-11T17:27:08Z")
Totally cool. At a Burning Man regional a few years ago we had a guy from Michigan with an electric fiddle and a recording box controlled with foot switches. He’d record a short phrase and loop it back with a delay about the same as the pipeline had then play against it. He could layer phrases – he did as many as three – and could change them on the fly so the performances could get quite complex. He put on two performances of about fifteen minutes each at about noon and dusk all three days we were there and everything would come to a halt when he did. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/8 "2021-05-11T17:47:51Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Did a clown offer you a balloon? > [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > Did a clown offer you a balloon? The pipeline doesn’t go to Maine. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/9 "2021-05-11T20:29:53Z")
There have been people in pipelines in two James Bond movies. James himself in Diamonds are Forever. And the defecting Russian went for a pig ride through the Trans-Siberian Pipeline in The Living Daylights. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/10 "2021-05-11T21:06:07Z")
[hijack] There are a lot of solo artists who utilize this technique and many, many of them produce amazing musical works. Reggie Watts is one of them: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/344OpaQCAQI/hqdefault.jpg "Reggie Watts (Key & Peele outro song) 'I Just Want To' (2009)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=344OpaQCAQI) [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/11 "2021-05-11T22:52:41Z")
> I’ve been inside the Colonial Pipeline The Pipeline wants to know if it was good for you, too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/12 "2021-05-11T23:57:35Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > There have been people in pipelines in two James Bond movies. James himself in Diamonds are Forever. And the defecting Russian went for a pig ride through the Trans-Siberian Pipeline in The Living Daylights. …and what of The World Is Not Enough? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/13 "2021-05-12T00:34:11Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > The construction project was what they call an “attractive nuisance” to the little children who lived around it, what with trenching machines, heavy equipment, and all those pipe sections. I look back at the way we crawled all over sites like that once the workmen went home and just shake my head. I can’t believe what we were allowed to get up to. Ought be more of it! Young children of today know nothing of the real world. Now get off ma lawn! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/14 "2021-05-12T06:51:22Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > There have been people in pipelines in two James Bond movies. James himself in Diamonds are Forever. And the defecting Russian went for a pig ride through the Trans-Siberian Pipeline in The Living Daylights. Pipeline also refers to a surfing phenomenon, as in this pic. Richard Bach, stunt pilot and author of _Jonathan Livingston Seagull_, tells the story that he once flew his biplane through one such. [![](https://d14fqx6aetz9ka.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/05135942/04_klein_pipeline_hawaii_march2011_003799.jpg) ](https://d14fqx6aetz9ka.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/05135942/04_klein_pipeline_hawaii_march2011_003799.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/15 "2021-05-12T13:58:17Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I look back at the way we crawled all over sites like that once the workmen went home and just shake my head. I can’t believe what we were allowed to get up to. We would seek out construction sites where somebody had left a backhoe, dozer, excavator or other equipment with an implement not lowered to the ground. Whenever we’d find one, we’d look for something to place under the implement, and crush it by working the lever to lower the implement (which works without engine power if there’s a float position on the valve). But I don’t know that we were “allowed”, exactly… ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-inside-the-colonial-pipeline/941836/16 "2021-05-13T02:06:18Z")
Bad choice of words, I should have said “I can’t believe what we got away with”.