Another good one, Rory! Thanks. BTW, it's just four weeks until your Da's birthday. I'm VERY much looking forward to the one you do that week, for him. And, you're REALLY teasing us, showing us the plaque for your Opry debut and not putting anything on your channel about it. If we ask very nicely, can we see some of the performance? 😉 I have a note about this song as well. (Go figure.) The last lines in verses two and four are: "Very next words the captain says, 'You better get your pole.'" "Very next time they call on you, you bet you'll have your pole." The "pole" is a poleaxe, which they used to drive in wedges, spikes, and heavy bolts, to fasten things into the rock and to break loose slabs or chunks of coal. If a convict was in the mines, the boss wouldn't say "your coal," because the coal wouldn't belong to the convict. He would say "get (or have) MY coal," instead, because the convicts would be mining the coal for the bosses, so the bosses would consider it theirs.
Another good one, Rory! Thanks. BTW, it's just four weeks until your Da's birthday. I'm VERY much looking forward to the one you do that week, for him. And, you're REALLY teasing us, showing us the plaque for your Opry debut and not putting anything on your channel about it. If we ask very nicely, can we see some of the performance? 😉
I have a note about this song as well. (Go figure.) The last lines in verses two and four are:
"Very next words the captain says, 'You better get your pole.'"
"Very next time they call on you, you bet you'll have your pole."
The "pole" is a poleaxe, which they used to drive in wedges, spikes, and heavy bolts, to fasten things into the rock and to break loose slabs or chunks of coal. If a convict was in the mines, the boss wouldn't say "your coal," because the coal wouldn't belong to the convict. He would say "get (or have) MY coal," instead, because the convicts would be mining the coal for the bosses, so the bosses would consider it theirs.