Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan

Subject: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: CeltArctic
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 08:08 PM

I've been singing this song since I was a kid and have long forgotten the source. I've tried googling it, but have gotten nowhere. I'd love to at least know the author's name. I was told it was written by the 'mayor of Eastend Saskatchewan.'

This is the song:

East End was once a happy town
Where harmony and love
Was busting out of all the seams
And in the skies above.
The dove of peace was laying eggs;
There were no signs of strife.
For each man loved his neighbour,
And sometimes his neighbour's wife.

But a sudden change soon come about--
Storm clouds were in the sky.
Nobody stopped to kiss a body,
Coming through the rye.
For each man eyed his neighbour
With malice and with hate;
Housewives no longer spilt the beans
Across the garden gate.

CHORUS:
We had a war, a civil war.
Folks often asked us what we all were fighting for.
Well, some of us wanted water mains,
And sewers and bath-tubs too;
While the rest of us decided
We would make the slop-pails do.

It was sewers versus slop-pails;
The town was split in two.
With profane propaganda,
The air was often blue.
The sewer and water faction
Had a sanitary plank--
They said shallow wells and slop-pails
And toilets always stank.

But the slop-pailers were stubborn;
They fought with tooth and nail.
The said our nit-wit council
Should be languishing in jail.
They spoke how high taxation
And plumbers' union fees
Would land us in the poor house
And they'd throw away the keys.

But when those votes were counted,
Slop-pailers met defeat.
And draglines started tearing up
Our quiet village street.
Then peace and harmony, once more,
Displaced the grapes of wrath.
So when next you visit East End,
Just stop in and have a bath.

Anyone???

Subject: RE: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:06 PM

May I suggest the following:

Town of Eastend

Mayor: Terry Haggart
Administrator - Debbra Lewis

P.O. Box 520
Eastend, SK S0N 0T0
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]

Perhaps an e-mail asking for the 'local historian' might produce some beneficial results. Most small towns on the prairies have someone who knows about that kind of history. I'd guess the song marked a big fight over whether or not to get 'piped in water' and that the fight would have been about cost. Also, Eastend is home to the Wallace Stegner House, so that too might be a place to try.

Subject: RE: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:47 PM

What a great song! Any idea what tune it was put to (assuming it was set to a pre-existing melody); e.g. Auld Lang Syne?

Subject: RE: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 11:26 PM

1300 hardy souls live there.

Subject: RE: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: CeltArctic
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 01:16 AM

There is a tune, but sadly I am not adept at writing out music, and have no software to aid me. The melody is reminiscent of musichall.

I'll try the email suggested above. In the meantime...I'm sure I learned this by ear off a recording some 20 years ago. So if anyone knows who the recording artist may have been, please let me know.

Moira

Subject: RE: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: Willie-O
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:39 PM

Subject: RE: Origins: Eastend-song about town in Saskatchewan
From: Willie-O
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:46 PM

That was weird--the cursor didn't show up in the text box and I didn't click submit. Mudcat Hiccup!

I was going to say this conflict is being replicated in any number of places, especially in Ontario where water quality is a big issue since the Walkerton disaster (polluted water killed seven people).

Notably the village of Sydenham which is installing a really expensive water-and-sewer system which householders are going to be assessed $15-20k each for.

And Lanark village, just down the road here, has big issues too. Cause they waited too long to install a proper municipal water system and the whole village is full of contaminated wells and (contaminating) private septic systems.

Water may indeed be one of the big-deal issues of the 21st century. Kind of ironic. You'd think plumbing would be figured out by now, and basically it is. Just not how to pay for it.

W-O