Add another name to the AvE roster, Have always been fascinated by Gandy Dancers and I recall my grandfather telling me that 7 men could equal a tractor and go where one cannot while telling me about the line workers fixing the rails.
Unfortunately cadence "Jody's" calling was created way before then it was not called that but was ment for similar reasons for the troops way bad. You know of old tail London Bridge fell due soldiers marching to cadence and created harmonic balance in the Bridge which caused it to fail. This is when the term break step came into effect. Modern cadence was created by Sandee Johnson in revolutionary War then first recorded one was during WW2 in 1944 by Colonel Bernard Lentz.
sonny benfield-I,m old enought and fortunate to remember gandy dancers. iI got to see them replacing rails after a derailment.. my dad was a machinist for southern railway.. the name came from the tool they used made by G and D tool company.I still have one.
I'm white and sometimes I was the only white guy on the crew but it was one of the most integrated jobs I ever had. The only requirement was you had to work your *** off. The singing was related to lining the track and I didn't hear much about religion or social protest. The songs represented the hard lives of the men doing the singing. Black or white I had a ton of respect for those men and loved them like brothers.
My grandfather was a gandy dancer on the Great Northern back in the 40s. His experience was the same as yours, except there were Chinese and Hispanic guys on the crew too. No one cared. You worked your tail off next to Kwon Fai or Hernando or Malachi or whoever. You had a job to do and you went out there and did it. Grandpa said it was the hardest work he ever did. He eventually rose to roadmaster for the Great Northern, but he never forgot those guys on the crews and he did what he could to reward them for their hard work.
My father track foreman for Seaboard R R . HE HAD 4 crew of old back man. My father work besides. They did more work crew of six man's. They had songs about father be kid telling come to Crew and foreman
Wanchikala buu size, i am not even american but i recognise with this as this is just another version of "aikin gayyya"in hausaland which is an age old african way of crews getting a hardwork done. We the darker people might be oceans apart but we are one people through our ways. Much respect from Nigeria.
When I was a kid about 14 we lived on the IC and GMAnd O railroad. I got to watch the Gandy dancers in action. I would give anything if I had a video camera back then.
I'm a union construction laborer who was digging through rock with one of those bars last week. We call them johnson bars and all constuction crews should have one. I was working with a former railroad worker and I wished I'd remembered gandy dancing to tell him about it.
This is truly backbreaking labor and back in the day (1880s up to the 1950s and 60s) it was essentially slave labor where you were paid company money where you couldnt spend it anywhere but the company store
My father track foreman for Seaboard. He crew was 4 black man. He work with his crew they could work out work other with 6 man. When father was little boy run out to watch them tell when get big work with them. They made songs about my father how gone Pre R R. One of his man I was 9 read his mail to him he didn't have glasses. It was great job for 45 years oher things. When told my father about Dr mail l didn't he have glasses, my father told didn't go to school, cause he was black. My father said all crew was well education with no school.
My Grand Father had a third grade education. He had to raise, with a wonderful woman, ten kids. He worked in the fields and on the rail road, one cross-timber per shoulder. (fall out, lose your job) He was a white southerner. Very unpopular people then. Very unpopular now because people do not know the truth of America. Hard work built America and whether it's popular or not, most colors did the work. My Grand Parents owned know one. LOLI don't like work--no man does--but I like what is in the work--the chance to find yourself. Your own reality--for yourself not for others--what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.” ― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
This is great. However Buddy Boy Hawkins from Birmingham cut "Workin' On The Railroad" for Paramount records in 1927. It is a great example to be added to this video or as an adjunct. Also Harry Charles of Birmingham did record for Paramount in 1927 a group of track men singing their chant of moving railroad ties..Try and find it or contact Gayle Dean Wardlow at songwriterdelta@yahoo com and I will lead you to the Charles PM recording. Posted by Gayle Dean Wardlow --not Andy Cook whose computer I am using to post this comment, 1-4-14.
+DRGW168 It is meant in the same light as a custodian of the national archives. It meant that it was in your custody or care. A job that is really more important than the ones held by some of the railroad VPs. Because if the tracks aren't maintained, the VPs have nothing to sell.
AND THE Railroads STILL REFUSE TO GIVE THEIR EMPLOYEES THE DSY OFF ON MARTIN LUTHER KINGS BIRTHDAY!!!! THEY SHOULD BE ASHAMED !!! I WILL NEVER WORK ANOTHER MLK DAY AS LONG AS I WORK FOR THE RxR the rest of my career
