Labor-lore and Working Class Culture

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Comment by Nathan Moore on September 19, 2010 at 6:03

I'm reading a great book right now by Philip S. Foner and Rheinhold Schultz entitled: "The Other America: Art and the Labour Movement in the U.S." It's a wonderful overview of working-class paintings, photography, murals, and cartoons. Highly recommended.

Comment by Nathan Moore on September 14, 2010 at 3:42

Great poem, Gordon. I might have to memorize that one...

Comment by Gordon Glick on September 14, 2010 at 2:57

The law locks up the hapless felon
who steals the goose from off the common,
but lets the greater felon loose
who steals the common from the goose.
Anonymous, England, 1821

Comment by Nathan Moore on September 6, 2010 at 4:49

I've noticed that fixed gear bikes are now very popular among other younger people in Eugene who are not bike messengers. I didn't know that they are called "fixie." Very interesting how an occupational innovation has spread to other groups of riders.

Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on September 5, 2010 at 22:25

That is the "Door Prize", here in TO, Gordon, and it's pretty universal among bikies. Hmmm. Couriers tend to ride track-style fixed-gear bikes, "fixies" ... they are lighter, more responsive, and gear shifting is one less thing to pay attention to in traffic.

Comment by Gordon Glick on September 5, 2010 at 22:11

I did the tenspeed messenger trip in Manhattan in 1971-72. This was before it was cool, before helmets, spandex, and that movie "Quicksilver". One of the terms I remember is getting "side-doored." All the other terms are unprintable.

Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on September 5, 2010 at 21:43

I've been riding a bike for over 40 years in Toronto, but the couriers are their own subculture. The riders I know are tourists, commuter and racers.

Comment by Nathan Moore on September 5, 2010 at 21:22

Gordon: I'd love to see the mural pics once you can post them. It's interesting that the post office in Bremerton with the WPA murals is up for sale...We have the same situation in Eugene. There is a post office with some great murals by Carl Morris and they are selling that building as well. I hope that whoever buys it will do their utmost to preserve the murals. They are a wonderful part of our working-class history.

Gordon and Ross--thanks for the lingo posts. I love the term Dock Walloper--I hadn't heard that one yet. I also hadn't heard that bicycle mechanics are called "wrenches." I wonder what kind of lingo bicycle messengers have?

Comment by Gordon Glick on September 5, 2010 at 18:16

That's cool. I worked in the same place for 31 years: perhaps that gave me a parochial viewpoint. Another term for marine mechanic is the Navy term: Snipe. It is great to find workers' jargon for tools and occupations, they are usually more useful, descriptive and fun than the real names for things. Which would you rather ask for at the tool crib: a "Pneumatic Impact Wrench", or a "Rattle-Jack"? If you're a trucker, do you decelerate on downhill grades with the "Compression Release'" or the "Jake-Brake"? It's all good.

Comment by Brian Ross Ashley on September 5, 2010 at 17:49

Gordon, some of that is more widespread than the shipyards. I was a hospital supplies receiver most of my working life, and I worked on a loading dock unloading trucks ... I was a dockwalloper.
Laggers insulate pipe all over North America.
Bicycle mechanics are "wrenches".

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