Songs

Bubby Fakes a Stand

84 Comments

Today’s entry comes from our perennial sophomore at Wendell Wilkie High School, the one and only Bubby Spamden.

Hey Mr. C.,

I’m wondering if we can get some labor unrest stirred up here in Minnesota just like they have it in Wisconsin. I’d really like my teachers to go AWOL for a few protest days at the state capitol.

What a great deal for those students next door – they’ve already had two days off with the promise of more to come! PLUS, after a day of playing video games in your PJ’s you can turn on the TV news to see your English teacher freezing on the steps of a state office building, waving a hand lettered sign and screaming for the Governor’s head. I’ll bet when that teacher gets back to the classroom she’ll be too hoarse to do anything but have hours and hours of quiet reading time – which is my favorite kind of in-class assignment. I love opening a big, soft book and then putting my head right down on it so the words can soak into my brain.

And speaking of going AWOL, how about those Wisconsin democrats who got to go on a road trip to Illinois? They’re hiding in a hotel somewhere, but nobody knows which one. And now Wisconsin’s State Troopers are looking for them! If I were on the lam in northern Illinois, I’d pick a hotel with a water park and hot waffle machines in the breakfast bar. I had no idea being a member of the state legislature was so cool! I thought it was just boring meetings all day long – kind of like going to class, but with voting.

What a great learning experience. I demand equal treatment with the students in Wisconsin! Please, make it happen here!

In our Life Choices class on Friday, I told Mr. Boozenporn that I would have really, really respected him more if he had gone to Wisconsin to show solidarity with the public employees there. It looked like he was actually considering it for a moment, but then he switched the lesson plan and spent the whole hour talking about labor history and he made us watch videos of Pete Seeger! And he says he’ll bring in his Weavers records on Tuesday!

Not what I had in mind.

Your friend,
Bubby

I told Bubby I was impressed that he was following the news so closely, but distressed to discover that he only sees these monumental policy struggles as another possible way to skip a few days of school. I like Mr. Boozenporn’s approach. Subjecting helpless high school students to skinny banjo players doing pro-union songs is more subversive and possibly more effective than marching on the capitol.

I have it on good authority that these are two of the You Tube videos Mr. Boozenporn showed yesterday.

What’s your favorite song about work?

84 thoughts on “Bubby Fakes a Stand”

  1. Ah, Pete Seeger is a great way to get an errand-filled Saturday going!

    I like the song “Baby, You Butter My Bread” by the Divers. It’s about working in the kitchen, which I would always prefer to slogging away in my cubelet!

    (BiR…see last comment yesterday about Jasper FForde)

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  2. Rise and Shine Baboons:

    Oh, Bubby. You are so clueless. Yesterday at work I was talking with our resident native Wisconsinite/now Minnesotan, about how here in MN we are just one Democratic governor away from being in Wisconsin’s shoes. Enough to make a body shudder as we laugh about Wisconsin Dem’s “On the Lam.” I’m stuck somewhere between the hilarity and the horror!

    Meanwhile, work song’s? Chain Gang, Workin’ on the Xerox Line, Why Paddy Wasn’t at Work Today. First I was a Hippy, Now I am a StockBroker…. Favorites all.

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  3. Confessions of an Outdoor Writer
    A Work Song by Steve Grooms

    Oh, I’m not exactly a writer,
    And then again, I’m not exactly not
    Pretendin to be a Writer,
    Pretending to be Outdoors.

    In 1973 I tried something new,
    Got me a camera and a typewriter too,
    And I’m still waitin for it to pay
    Oh baby, still waiting for it to pay

    Some writers tell you how to love
    Some help you keep your old butt alive
    My stuff helps you “git yer deer,”
    Skin a bunny and keep a warm rear.

    Cliches are my middle name!
    They’re the secret to my game!
    So: “My rod began to dance and my reel began to sing!”
    While I avoid being truthful about any old thing.

    Oh, I’m not exactly a writer,
    And then again, I’m not exactly not.
    I’m an outdoor writer
    Still waiting for it to pay,
    Yup, baby, still waiting for it to pay!
    “Another double, barkeeper, while we’re waiting for it to pay!”

    And in this month’s issue:
    “How to Outwit a Bluegill!”
    “Rut-crazy bucks are even dumber than YOU!”
    Secrets of the Midnight Crappie Killer Crews”
    Plus special report: “I spent a night in a tent with a grizzly, and SURVIVED!”

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    1. great one, SteveiSP!
      have not felt this way except once, but “Take this job and shove it” must be mentioned, i suppose.
      love all that Jacque mentioned
      a cold, gracious (and soon to be snow-filled?) good day to You All

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      1. When my son was small an error on my part led to a change in the end of “I’ve Been Workin” for some reason just once I slipped and sang “Strummin’ on the old woman.” It has remained as such since then.

        Workin’ 9-5 hits a chord but since I am on call and have already dealth with several issues this morning 9-5 doesn’t sound too bad.

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    4. Nice work Steve. Compelling, as always. The quandary of being an “outdoor writer” should be investigated through song lyrics and movies and every other form of media. After all, the task of actually writing the piece is not exactly an outdoorsy activity. And those with an urge to get outdoors don’t typically haul a lot of books and magazines along with them when they go. So who is the audience? “Outdoor” and “Writer” seem to be working against each other, no?

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      1. There used to be a bunch of guys who wanted to be successful outdoors but didn’t want to work at it. They were hooked on the idea that there were “secrets” that would yield positive results to those canny enough to possess them. Everyone wants something for nothing. We all want a diet that lets us ignore calorie counts and yet the pounds mysteriously disappear. In every field of endeavor–photography, guitar playing, making refrigerator magnets–you have this large class of folks who want good results without making an investment. They will buy magazines and sit in front of TV sets, looking for the shortcut to heaven. And god bless their foolish little brains . . . they usually keep the wheels of this economy turning over at a good clip.

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    6. classic steve, nicely done. outdoor stuff is still of interest yo people of our vintage but it seems to be waning in the lives of the up and coming adults. tents with no facebook access. i don’t think so, field and stream is long gone but mens journal and esquire may be possible landing places for the stuff that you do. the new yorker should be ready to publish an icefishing story about now. how about the opening day fishing preparations at mills fleet farm. there is nothing else like it, fly fishing in livingston montana? i will read it and i have never done it. i heard on bob edwards yesterday that lions have decreased in population like buffal and are now down from millions 100 years ago to 700,000 50 years ago to thousands today. there is certainly a story in that. killing stuff is not the father and son tradition it once was, all rel=palced by year round hockey camps, baseball camps, basketball camps, its hard to sneak interest into our lives any more. being bombarded wiht data and information does come at a price. 10 years ago i would have the 5 hours a week i spend on blogs and the 20 hours a week i spend on the internet to do other things. i see it getting more that way rather than less, not happy just aware.
      can you teach squirrel hunting form the patio while you update your facebook account between xbox games?

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      2. My brother-in-law always says he loved going hunting with his father when he was a kid, liked packing the cooler and taking the car trip and hiking around in the woods and cooking out. The one thing he didn’t really like was the part where you’re supposed to kill an animal. So now he just hikes instead.

        I think he’s probably fairly typical of a lot of modern males.

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  4. The Erie Canal
    I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad (toddler son would belt out … Rayroad)
    + some mentioned by Jacque… Will have to think of others.
    We had a car game where we’d be singing these old songs, and my sister and I could only sing then there was a yellow line on our side of the road (No Passing Zone). There are a lot of straight roads in Iowa, some curves, but… my parents were no dummies – lots of silence with pauses of energetic singing!

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      2. that’s the one I got-“Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go, I owe my soul to the company store” guides my debt avoiding life philosophy.

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      3. Once when I was a youngling, I rewrote the words to that song to relate to shoveling snow (as I spent an afternoon doing such).
        “…Saint Lawrence don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go, I gotta stay here and push six feet of snow….”

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  6. Greetings! I can only think of the few mentioned above, but I love Stan Rogers “code it right, hauling out the Xerox line” (I hope I got the words right) and working in the Coal Mine. It’s been feeling like both of those songs for me at work this week, hammering away at computer and trying to keep up with the crazy busy time we’re having and working overtime. I’ve scanned through the blogs barely but never posted. I think I posted once, but it was a day later or something stupid like that.

    Yesterday’s blog was painful to read — ouch! Too many injuries, I felt bad for you all. I had gotten a freaky hard hit to my shins in sparring 18 months ago, and my shin, ankle and foot were all swollen and bruised. I honestly could not walk or be on my foot more than a few minutes at a time. Missed 3 weeks of work and a lot of karate. There’s still an obvious bruise mark where I got hit but it doesn’t bother me. And we wear full gear and pads during sparring. That’s really the only bad injury I’ve seen on anybody from sparring. You might get a little bruise sometimes, but if you stay on your toes and work on avoiding hits as well as scoring points, you do OK.

    Enjoy the day!

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    2. Joanne You surprised me! I thought you were going to mention the greatest farming song ever written (or ever Will Be Written!): “Field Behind the Plow.” The imagery in that song is better poetry than Bob Dylan has mastered yet. There is a manly precision and authenticity about the language of that song, right down to the earthy touch of “blow a dust-cake from your nose!” And then that chilling line about how you could see your neighbor’s heart attack coming on “’cause he works as hard as YOU.”

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      1. You’re funny, Steve. I don’t recall that particular song — I’d have to hear it. Song lyrics don’t register with me in general, but “blow a dust-cake from your nose” — that’s awesome. As for me, I’ll be blowing paper shreds from my nose. There are mountains of paperwork involved with every new worker at the Xcel nuclear plant and I’m a part of it. If I can get through the next 2-3 weeks, we’ll be through the worst of it.

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  8. I like the song Pharaoh sung by the an Irish group called The House Band. One of the lines goes “Call it England, call it Spain, Pharaoh rules with a whip and chain.” the melody is haunting.

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  9. Working Girl Blues by Hazel Dickens
    The Sick Note (or Why Paddy’s Not at Work Today) – I think it’s traditional.

    I’ve been joining the protesters in Wisconsin this week in spirit if not physically. Like Jacque pointed out, we are one Governor away from being in the same situation as Wisconsin. It’s hard for me to joke about this. I’ve been an AFSCME union member for 34 years and I’m taking it all pretty seriously. When I was financially unable to finish at Olaf in the ’70s, I did the next best thing and got myself a full-time job with bennies and a retirement pension. I’ve been doing the American worker thing ever since: buying a house, living within my means, paying bills, trying to save money. Part of my plan was the large amount of equity I once had in my house. The economy took that and then it wrecked my investments. And now this new threat… it would lay waste to everything I have left.

    Today’s workers in private industry are profiting from the labor battles of history. Labor laws have been passed because of those hard fought battles. People died so that we can live and work better today. Wisconsin’s Governor has either forgotten that or disrespects it completely. There is no reason to take away the right to organize. It is not a fiscal issue.

    This has struck a nerve.

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    3. i think this is the opportunity like w’s second term for the gop to show their stuff. the only chance the dfl has is for the right wingers to be so out there the reasonable middle of the roaders realize god and abortion and mexicans don’t equal guys who won’t fix raods or ecucate our children. war and tax breaks for the wealthy is a platform for success because you get to fund the campaign but it kind of ticks off the people. i had a phone company tell me that i should swithch to them because they had not contributed to the party that takes away peoples rights. the times they are a changin.

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  10. the cheeseheads are good for something after all. let them eat cheese eh gov… i think he may be the sacraficial lamb for the repubicans. they run him up the flagpole and levae him for dead on the road and move on… he was way to far out there (got that fellow gop folk..don’t follow that road) we have to figure out a good way to cut spending and not raise taxes without upsetting anyone or rocking any boats (this is harder than we thought) minnesotas republicians have said they will do it by not rehiring state workers when they retire. ( 6 billion dollars worth? dream on no be can afford to retire)
    i had typed this up earlier in a different version but am having technology issues these days that are raising havoc.
    the songs were there erie canal, paperback writer, whistle while you work, hi ho,hi diddly de an actors life for me, the boxer, and more that i wrote but forgot. i will check back,
    yestedays broken bodies laft me feeling gratefoul for a relatively good health at the moment. heal up dale and steve, this is no place to be with a bum body

    along with stan rogers chuck suchy has to have a couple good farming tunes to throw on the list
    shall we start a keepers work song compilation and pass on?

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    1. if i were a rich man, obla di obla da, the itsy bitsy spider, the long and winding road, her majesty’s a pretty nice girl, you can’t always get what you want, sympathy for the devil…… gosh it goes on and on doesnt it?

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  15. Having gone to grad school in Madison, I was once a Wisconsin State Employee, just like every other TA at the University. The TAs were represented by a union, whether they belonged to it or not. That union worked to make sure class sizes stayed manageable, amongst other things.

    As more and more jobs get down-sized and out-sourced, my question is-who is supposed to be doing all this consuming that is the salvation of the economy.

    I believe it was Henry Ford that figured out he needed to pay his workers enough to afford the cars they built, and have enough time off to drive them.

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  16. Interesting collection – her majesty’s a pretty nice girl: I just looked it up… I even have Abbey Road, but I always thought they were saying Maggie’s a pretty nice girl….

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  17. I’d agree with all of the songs mentioned so far – and add this one (along with most anything else by Billy Bragg), in solidarity for the folks in Wisconsin:

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  19. speaking of unions – has anyone seen “Matewan” – film about unionization of coal mines in W. VA? can’t imagine it was any easier up on the iron range. there are folks in Duluth who still believe those commie Finns ruined everything with their unions.
    i’m seeing empowerment of the masses in WI and i think they were energized by the Egyptians. maybe people will think about voting and voting intelligently now. could we hope?

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    1. It would be nice to think so. But Madison has a larger proportion of union workers than most of the state, due to the large number of government workers. I heard somewhere – probably on ATC – that government workers now account for over half of unionized workers in the US, since there’s been such a decline in unionization in private industry.

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  20. For a cynic like me, this is an easy one.
    From the soundtrack of the 1992 Robin Williams box office flop, “Toys,” comes a Tori Amos double-entendre masterpiece:

    Pump the water, build the pressure
    Push the piston, press the button
    It’s the perfect job.

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    1. Same here – family get together was cancelled. Glad tomorrow’s a postal holiday, doesn’t matter how soon I get to the shoveling.

      Off topic – Have discovered a small ?owl? , maybe, that comes and perches on our big round thermometer outside bathroom window upstairs. Have seen him twice, have only seen it fly once so can’t be sure. Seems magic.

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      1. I’ve heard that when the weather is inhospitably cold in Canada, a lot of owl species wander south in search of warmer temperatures.

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    2. I’m in Evan, under a few inches of snow and a funk, watching squirrels on the wire expressways. Why do they seem busier on these days or do they just show better against all the white? We maybe should have stayed in Mankato to get started packing. Will be here tonight and tomorrow’s forecast is not looking good.

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    3. I have the oven on, the menu is wild turbot fillet from Trader Joe’s, baked potato, frozen peas, and toasted baguette. Opened a bottle of Chilean carmenere that is going down pretty easy.

      Glad I don’t have to be anywhere.

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  24. Linda, that sounds awesome! My Chilaquiles Casserole just came out of the oven — a simple, but hearty and tasty meal. We’ll snuggle in for the night, but a 6:30am start time at work tomorrow is not looking very good right now. Snuggle up and cocoon, Baboons!

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    1. Good suggestion Baboons! The storm is ending here. we have had 7 inches of light, dry powder that can be swept but still drifts like crazy. I am enjoying a mug of Lynn Rosetto Kasper’s brodo. We shall have cold and clear tomorrow. You are all in for it. Stay warm and cozy. Napped with our smallest cat this afternoon.

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    2. There once was a group of baboons
      Who shared a love of good tunes
      And when they couldn’t go
      Outside for the snow
      Posted videos from their cocoons.

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  25. Glorious day. Spent most of it on the sofa reading and doing the crossword w/ the fire going in the fireplace. Teenager, dogs and cat in attendance. Had raclette w/ bread and potatoes for dinner while watching dinner. Looks like about 9-10 inches here so far… whatya think, Anna?

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      1. Well, the radar map shows it slowing down for a little bit for a couple of hours and then 100% from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Suppose it’s possible. Although you all know that I do actually like the snowblowing and some shoveling… I’m hoping to do it at my leisure tomorrow and NOT at 5 a.m. in order to get to work at time. Everyone keep fingers crossed, as my company has never had a whole snow day, although we’ve been sent home early a few times.

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      2. I let the dog out the front door to do her duty, BECAUSE THE BACK DOOR WOULD NOT OPEN–A FOOT OF SNOW PILED UP THERE. She stepped out and disappeared into the the snow. Very deep.

        So yes 20″ might be the truth!

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  26. I think Big Lake is in a sort of pocket of the current weather system. It started late here and there’s only a couple inches of snow at this point, but it’s still falling. What’s the chance of getting the boys to shovel now? There’s no school tomorrow for them.

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  27. Evening–

    Watched movies here… (including a ‘Tenth Anniversary of Hee Haw’ that I wouldn’t recommend!)… driveway is drifted good… will be blowing that out before anybody goes anywhere in the morning…
    Fox Burgers and baked potatoes for supper; a combination we’ve not done before…

    Now I’m doing bookwork (can’t you tell?) with a swig of Baileys every now and then…

    Be careful out there everyone!

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  28. Clyde – is Evan where some of your family is?
    Linda – I’m clearly going to have to check out Chilean carmenere; also, cool poem.
    Joanne – Did I ever tell you I love the chilaquiles recipe? thanks for reminder, must make it again soon.
    Renee – what is “mug of Lynn Rosetto Kasper’s brodo”?
    Sherrilee and Jacque – I hope we don’t have as much as you’ve got!

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    2. Brodo is a poultry/ beef broth from The Splendid Table cookbook. It will cure what ails you and the recipe makes at least a two gallons. I make mine with turkey wings and beef shanks.

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