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  Harvest Train In the 1920's my father joined the annual migration out West to the wheat fields of Alberta and Saskatchewan, where you could earn big money helping to bring in the harvest. This song tells the story of one trip out, and the adventures aboard the Special Train. Lyrics When I was a boy growing up on the Island The money was scarce There was nothing to do So my Brother and I headed out west On the train We pulled out of Moncton early that Fall Up the St. Lawrence to old Montreal We joked with the porters Played cards for quarters On the train We're away On the Harvest Train Away to those fields of gold On the harvest train (Repeat) North to the Sioux we were steadily climbing Around Lake Superior on the CPR line Over the muskeg And the Laurentian Shield On the train At a place called Chapleau we made a stop But the townspeople panicked, they wouldn't let us off They boarded their houses and locked up their daughters For they knew the whiskey was running like water On the train Why they called it a Special Train I'll never know With those hard-arsed benches and pot bellied stove We were packed in like sardines Only black flies to eat On the train Repeat Chorus After five days of hell we got to Regina I was placed on a farm just south of Weyburn Free room and board Back breaking work In the fields But the weather got colder and the harvest was over Our pockets were full, we were dancing in clover Some of us stayed But most of us boarded the train Back East on the train Repeat Chorus End Players Copyright SOCAN 2005 Wild Garden Music All Rights Reserved |