Drill Ye Tarriers Drill

Drill Ye Tarriers Drill

By John W. Vander Velden

 

When I was in Junior High – it is called middle school these days – we had music class.  Basically we sang for the hour.  One of the songs was “Drill Ye Tarriers Drill”.  Even then, the meaning of the ditty did not escape me, but it didn’t really hit home until years later.  My wife and I took a trip to Staved Rock State Park.  It’s in Illinois.  We are very much into historical “stuff”, covered bridges, mills, old barns, and the like.  So we found the Illinois and Michigan Canal.  Those that remember their U.S. history know about the canals dug throughout the Midwest, particularly Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois.  Of course the most famous, the Erie Canal is in New York State.

But it was seeing that canal in Illinois, seeing the aqueduct and lock, considering the ninety miles of trench dug…by hand…that made the words of that song we sang, years before, leap out of my past.  The thought of tons upon tons of soil moved by men and their shovels amazed me.

It was not only canals that demanded the toil and sweat of bent backs.  There is an old drainage tile that crosses my farm, eight foot of heavy clay soil cover it at its deepest.  A man worked all summer to put in that tile…by hand.  The railroads, ribbons of steel that cross the country, the first ties and rails were laid…by hand.  Mines, which supplied the resources our young country demanded, were dug…by hand.  The grand old barns with their tons of “hand” hewed beams were raised on the backs of men.  But the past’s toil was not reserved for males.  Women may have had different obligations but often those duties required hard, long hours, working around the home and in the fields.

We forget the labor demanded of past generations.  We forget when honest sweat was a symbol of honor.  We forget that this country was built on the backs of men and women.  So many striving to create something new.

Yes, the folk song is about those that carved railroad tunnels through solid rock.  They dug the tunnels that made the linking of our shores possible.  But that song reminds of the countless that accepted the challenges and with their perspiration changed the world.

 (379 Words) 

   

    

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