Winisdatter
05-13-2009, 12:11 PM
I was very fortunate. I was raised by my grandmother, who was raied in a railroading family. So I heard (and still use) terms she taught me.
Just yesterday I opened the ice box (still call it that) and took out the cottage cheese, applying the sniff test for edibility... at the sour oder, I remarked to my partner "Nope... this one's gone by the boards."
Any time something has gone by the boards, it's spoiled, or too old, or past its sell by date or whatever... . Basically from when a train missed the signal boards telling it to slow or stop.
I remember Mama telling Daddy when we were driving, if he was goign a bot too slow for traffic "Come on, Honey... Highball her!" Meaning... to speed up, of course.
When I was a kid, and getting rambunctious, Mama might lay her hand on my shoulder... pick it up, lay it down again, pick it up, then a single pat, then lay it back in the standard "Approaching grade crossing" whistle signal., Meaning "Settle down or you'll *wish* a train had hit you, Child!" or she'd clap the signal if I wasn't within reach.
"We're rolling!" simply meant "We're underway." and Mama used the term "Let's roll" LONG before 9/11.
Mama once commented, on seeing a very threadbare bum "I bet he's riding the rods!". To ride the rods meant that a person was so poor (or so careless of their own life!) that they would clamber up onto the "rods" (the undercarriage) of a box car, slide a board or something up in there, and lie down, and hold on for dear life when the train started! I.E. someone down on their luck.
From the sound it made passing us, Mama could tell which cars on a train were full, empty, and darn near what they were carrying, too! If we were on foot, and a train passed us, Mama always did the vertical over-the-head..down to the ground... over-the-head "Highball" gesture to the engineer as a greeting! Inevitably we'd get a whistle-tap as a reply. It became a greeting between us family members, too.
When the country converted to Amtrak, I wept. it meant that the Frisco was gone for good, as well as all the other 'roads. My dream of becoming a switcher or brakeman was ended. Gone by the boards.
Sylvia Stevens
Just yesterday I opened the ice box (still call it that) and took out the cottage cheese, applying the sniff test for edibility... at the sour oder, I remarked to my partner "Nope... this one's gone by the boards."
Any time something has gone by the boards, it's spoiled, or too old, or past its sell by date or whatever... . Basically from when a train missed the signal boards telling it to slow or stop.
I remember Mama telling Daddy when we were driving, if he was goign a bot too slow for traffic "Come on, Honey... Highball her!" Meaning... to speed up, of course.
When I was a kid, and getting rambunctious, Mama might lay her hand on my shoulder... pick it up, lay it down again, pick it up, then a single pat, then lay it back in the standard "Approaching grade crossing" whistle signal., Meaning "Settle down or you'll *wish* a train had hit you, Child!" or she'd clap the signal if I wasn't within reach.
"We're rolling!" simply meant "We're underway." and Mama used the term "Let's roll" LONG before 9/11.
Mama once commented, on seeing a very threadbare bum "I bet he's riding the rods!". To ride the rods meant that a person was so poor (or so careless of their own life!) that they would clamber up onto the "rods" (the undercarriage) of a box car, slide a board or something up in there, and lie down, and hold on for dear life when the train started! I.E. someone down on their luck.
From the sound it made passing us, Mama could tell which cars on a train were full, empty, and darn near what they were carrying, too! If we were on foot, and a train passed us, Mama always did the vertical over-the-head..down to the ground... over-the-head "Highball" gesture to the engineer as a greeting! Inevitably we'd get a whistle-tap as a reply. It became a greeting between us family members, too.
When the country converted to Amtrak, I wept. it meant that the Frisco was gone for good, as well as all the other 'roads. My dream of becoming a switcher or brakeman was ended. Gone by the boards.
Sylvia Stevens