#river driver

The Everyday Life of a Lumberjack and River Driver –James Annable

Photo from- thanks to Cathy & Terry Machin– Moore Lumber Co who Dugald New worked at as a cook and labourer.–The Postcard Courtship of Emma Buffam and Dugald New – Episode 3 It has seldom been our privilege to present a more comprehensive word picture of the everyday life of a lumberjack and river driver on the Upper Ottawa a half century ago, than that which comes to us today from the pen of…

Get drunk whenever I'm ready, get sober by and by,

And if this river don't drown me, it's down I'll mean to roam,

After six months' hard labour, at home I did arrive.

I courted with a pretty girl

T'was her caused me to roam.

Now I'm a river driver 

And I'm far away from home.

I’ll eat when I am hungry

and I’ll drink when I am dry,

Get drunk whenever I’m ready,

get sober by and by,

And if this river don’t drown me

it’s down I’ll mean to roam,

For I’m a river driver

and I’m far away from home.

I'll build a lonesome castle upon some mountain high

Where she can sit and view me as I go passing by

Where she can sit and view me as I go marching on.

For I'm a river driver

And I'm far away from home.

When I am old and feeble

And in my sickness lie

Just wrap me up in a blanket and lay me down to die

Just get a little blue bird to sing for me alone

For I'm a river driver 

and I'm far away from home.

and I’ll drink when I am dry,

Get drunk whenever I’m ready,

get sober by and by,

And if this river don’t drown me

it’s down I’ll mean to roam,

For I’m a river driver

and I’m far away from home.