TOM,
meanwhile, had become a verb: TOMMING. A LIQUOR HEAD was a drunk. A PAIL OF
COFFEE was a thermos-full, good on the night shift to wash down your MIDNIGHT
LUNCH. A SUIT AND NECKTIE MAN was a stuffed shirt, a ROCKING CHAIR GUY a
retiree. Count on a HUNDRED-PROOF GUY, and check out a PRETTY BROWNSKIN WITH A
SHAPE ON HER HITTIN' NINETY-NINE. Beware of NASTY TYPES or anyone slick enough
to have OIL ON HIS BOTTOM; both are as UNWELCOME AS AN UNDERTAKER AT A MARRIAGE
BREAKFAST.
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Sleeping
and dining cars were whole new contraptions and required a specialized
vocabulary for the equipment and crew. COFFIN RACK captured the look and feel
of the first all-male coaches. An observation car was a RUBBERNECK, the buffet
car a TIN CAN. When the train was ready to load passengers, or unload them, the
attendant DECORATED THE PLATFORM by putting in place a set of stairs. The
kitchen staff was hierarchical: the chef was a BIG MAN, with the LIZARD
SCORCHER overseeing food preparation. The PANTRYMAN made salads and stocked the
kitchen, SILVER MAN kept knives, forks, and spoons sparkling, and UPSTAIRS MAN
carried the food to a sleeper or anywhere beyond the diner. Low man was a PEARL
DIVER, whose only underwater activities were with suds and dirty dishes.
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The
most telling language was what Pullman porters used only with one another. The
earliest porters, the first Negroes to see America, were TRAVELIN' MEN, and
during stopovers they were FOREIGN PORTERS. Ones a bit too loyal to George
Pullman were COMPANY PORTERS, while doctors, lawyers, and other Negro
professionals who lined up against the union were PARLOR STOOL PIGEONS.
GRINNING was what company porters did; those with pride stuck to SMILING.
Crooning porters constituted a QUARTET, be they four or forty. Porters
goodnaturedly called one another PILLOW PUNCHERS, but it was no joke when a
passenger or journalist said it. RED, WHITE, AND BLUE were Negro rail workers -
redcaps, porters in their white coats, and blue-jeaned laborers who laid the
tracks. GETTING A SET OF KEYS meant a man had achieved the status of Pullman porter.
At the other end of a career he prayed for a PENSION RUN with fewer berths.
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Porters
saw things differently. They tipped waiters more than many passengers did, and
felt entitled to first-class service. They were in charge of an entire car and
believed that trumped anything the kitchen crew did. And if porters sometimes
worried that making beds was less than manly, what did that say about chopping
vegetables and washing dishes? The best way to calibrate those tensions, as
always, was with language. A piqued porter would call his dining car colleague
a "raggedy-ass waiter." The server shot back with "sheet
shaker" or, if he really was het up, "fart shaker."
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Larry
Tye "Rising from the Rails" (2004)
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