The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #139990 Message #3338017
Posted By: Don Firth
13-Apr-12 - 10:30 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Old Yesler's Mill (Peter Costantini)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Old Yesler's Mill (Peter Costantini)
Sort of a side topic, so I don't think it drifts the thread too far.
The term "skid road" in reference to a rough area of town started in Seattle. Back in the days, they were logging on First Hill, and they had built a trough from First Hill to Yesler's Mill on the waterfront. They greased the trough as best they could, then skidded the logs down to the mill. A lot easier than lugging them down.
Now, completely logged off and a central part of the city, the area is occupied by several hospitals and medical office buildings. Officially it's still called First Hill, but it's often referred to by locals as "Pill Hill."
Since, back then, the whole area was populated by hardworking loggers and sawmill workers, various businesses grew up there, dedicated to "relaxation and recreation" in the off-hours and during the rainy season when logging was suspended. Flop houses, saloons, houses of "ill repute," and such, along with some out-of-work or down on their luck folks. The skid road area was not an area for the genteel.
The term "skid road," referring to a rough-and-tumble area of a city, managed to get around to other cities and towns. But someplace along the line, in other cities and away from the actual skid road, the term got corrupted to "skid row," clouding its origins. But that's where the term originate.
[Murray Morgan, Skid Road: an Informal History of Seattle (1951)]As I sat down one evening,
'Twas in a small café;
A six-foot-seven waitress
To me these words did say:
"I see that you are a logger
And not just a common bum,
'Cause nobody but a logger
Stirs his coffee with his thumb!
The rest of the song HERE.
James Stevens, who wrote the song, preferred "six-foot-seven waitress" to "forty-year-old waitress."
Don Firth