Lifestyles

Renaissance Redneck: The Golden Spike

By David Kittredge
By David Kittredge

On May 10, 1869, the Golden Spike was driven at Promontory Point in Utah marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad across the United States, connecting the east and west coasts. Before that date it cost $1,000 to travel from California to New York or vice versa, with the trip taking six months. After completion of the transcontinental system, the trip took a week at a cost of $150.

Within the next 10 years, a production boom took place in America as the cross country rail system seeded the nation with raw materials, manufactured goods, persons and foodstuffs. The railway also facilitated the exchange of ideas from coast to coast and in between. The day after the Golden Spike was hammered into the ground a train left California laden with tea from Japan. Books written in San Francisco could be on store shelves in New York within a week of their publication. A fresh quickened flow of ideas and goods could be passed from Asia throughout America within months rather than relying solely on ocean voyages which took years.

Unfortunately, the completion of the Transcontinental rail system signaled the beginning of the end of the unfettered lifestyle of the plains Native Americans as the metal rails divided their territories and their hunting grounds. Seeming endless masses of buffalo often encountered the rail system, impeding a train’s forward progress. To deal with this problem the rail companies hired sports men to ride the trains to slaughter the herds of buffalo which were harvested to the point of decimation taking only their hides for tanning to use as blankets or coats, and their tongues, a gastronomic delicacy back east.

From the railroad industry, newly coined terms emerged, some of which have infiltrated into our everyday vocabulary. As proof I have consulted my 1859, fifth edition of Noah Webster’s Dictionary. Most of these railroading terms were not in the 1859 lexicon, so it can be concluded that these terms were created after the publishing date exclusively to describe situations encountered by or equipment used by railroaders.

First on the list is cross-overs, a short length of track that joins two main tracks. This term was not in the 1859 Webster’s, although interestingly enough cross tie was found, another railroading term meaning a cross sleeper, or tie connecting the rails. Crossover has now also come to mean achieving success in a different field or style, especially in music, but the term is used much in the same way regarding medicine and politics.

Hot shot is a term used for a fast train with high priority which is given the right of way over other trains. Hot shot can refer to an exceptionally talented person, especially if the person tends to be cocky.

Hot wheels is a railroader’s term for the overheating of the train’s metal wheels due to a brake malfunction causing the brake pads to seize thus creating friction which overheats the wheel bearings. In 1968, Mattel toy company started to produce Hot Wheels miniature cars, which became highly popular with the American public, so much so that the term hot wheels is now synonymous with the Mattel toy cars. On the website “Urban dictionary” the term Hot Wheels is described as the only successful American car company and goes on to explain that a Hot Wheels Mustang will last a lot longer than a Ford Mustang.

Red Flag Warning was used by the railroads as a weather alert, in general which advised of situations affecting rail service. Today we associate the term Red flag Warnings which are issued by the National Weather Service denoting that conditions are ideal for the combustion of wildfires and the rapid spread thereof.

I was surprised to learn that the term washout was not included in my antique Webster’s Dictionary. It might have been an oversight, but there again perhaps the term washout was popularized by the railroad, which was used to describe the erosion of the rail bed due to flooding. The term nowadays can also mean a failure of any kind or refer to a person who is a disappointment.

The term deadhead was found in the appendix of the 1859 Webster’s, described as a person who receives free tickets for theaters or public conveyances. In railroading the term is similar, referring to the movement of crews to work another train by vehicle transport or by train. Upon Googling the term deadhead, the definition now at the top of the list is a fan or follower of the rock group, the Grateful Dead, who are usually clad in tie-dyed t-shirts and hippie beads. One should hope that if you are described as a deadhead that you are in fact a follower of the group, otherwise it should be regarded as an insult.

I have never been a fan of the Grateful Dead. I have never cared for the group’s name, which seems to be a bad attitude toward life, plus I have never cared for their sound which I consider to be boring. Therefore I have never been called a deadhead, a knucklehead perhaps, a banana head on occasion, even a dunderhead at times, but never, ever have I been referred to as a deadhead, I am proud to say, although I do like the tie-dye look. I have never worn a tie-dyed T-shirt, nor will I. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be caught dead in one, gratefully or otherwise, especially these days considering the size of my belly, If I did don such gay apparel, as in, “fa-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la,” I could be hired by a planetarium as a stand in for the planet Jupiter, the largest of our planets.

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