Well shit, it was robber barons that built American railroads from iron and coal mines, to steel mills, to clear cutting forests, to stealing homes and farms for the right of way, they raped America. Still so many songs glorify the railroads, one Canadian? PAH! John Henry laid down his hammer and he died, and he died, one of so many victims, so many Italians, Irish, and Chinese immigrants that came looking for a better life and lost theirs. There are two movies about the same thing separated by north and south, Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific celebrating the building of transcontinental railroads. The reenactment of the Golden Spike ceremony takes place every year at Promentory Point, Utah while two solid gold spikes remain in museums. Then there are the movies Bonny And Clyde, The Untouchables, Scarface and more. Face it, we're a bunch of gun loving cowboys making folk heroes out of criminals, ay?
<POP> That was me after that tongue in cheek bit pulling it out making room for a few nuts.
On a lighter note (sic) when I heard The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald I broke down and cried knowing the back story and what the families of the sailors (all hands lost) went through twice. The first was the service held in the Sailor's Chapel (1975) when the taconite carrier went down fast in a storm with no time for a mayday while making a run for the shelter of Whitefish Point, and another memorial held in the same chapel (1995) when the ship's bell was recovered and polished after being replaced with a memorial plaque laid on her. I saw the whole thing in a very touching video, again I cried as it rang 29 times, once for each man lost.
https://adailypoemblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/28/the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald/
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