My New Hero

While we were in Yoho National Park, we went to the interpretive talk about the Spiral Tunnels. It was interesting to hear the history of this engineering marvel that is one hundred years old this year. 

One of my favourite parts was to hear about Lady Agnes MacDonald, wife of Sir John A MacDonald, Canada's first prime minister. After hearing the story I was a bit skeptical, but I've found a lot about it on the internet.

This is from the following web-site:

http://www.kvbrakemen.com/inc/Train_Talk_Songbook.pdf

"Now for something wonderfully unique in Canadian history. This song relates a bizarre act by the wife of Canada's first Prime Minister during the couple's cross Canada train trip in 1886. Lady Agnes Macdonald was, by nature, a totally unliberated Victorian lady. Out of modesty, she believed piano legs should be skirted. She referred to "dark meat" and "white meat", never the breast or the thigh of a chicken--and she thought the only reason a woman should leave home on Sunday was to attend church. So it came as a complete surprise to Sir John A, and the C.P.R. executives when Lady Agnes insisted on riding up front on the cowcatcher of the locomotive as their train steamed from the Rockies to the west coast! Unable to dissuade her, John A. rode along with her as the train chugged into Revelstoke but then he returned to the club car and Lady Agnes (smiling from ear to ear) rode the rest of the way on her own. For some myserious reason she wanted that experience badly enough to defy the conventions of the day, her public persona AND the wishes of her husband. Our song honours the gutsy spontaneity of...LADY MACDONALD'S RIDE. "

   

LADY MACDONALD’S RIDE

By: Jack Godwin 

A train went by the other day, the weirdest thing I’ve seen, 

A lady rode on the cowcatcher, as regal as a queen. 

Oh, she was havin’ fun, now that was plain to see 

Later I heard, she rode up there from the Rockies to the sea! 

CHORUS: 

When your big chance comes...TAKE IT, don’t you run away and hide 

Nothin’s gonna happen ‘less you...MAKE IT, you can't win unless you try.('cause...) 

Just once around--then we’re gone--to life’s other side. 

There’s a lesson for the learnin’, in Lady Macdonald’s ride. 

“I’m perfectly aware of the danger, she said. But the spell of the moment is strong. 

Just once to court excitement, that surely can’t be wrong.” 

Past wildfires an' rock slides, riding there alone, 

Lady Macdonald saw it all, on her cowcatcher throne. 

CHORUS 

Swayin’ ‘round the mountain curves, and down the steepest grade 

I heard she laughed with pleasure, completely unafraid. 

Skirts tucked underneath her, hat down ‘round her eyes 

She rode into the history books on those C.P. railway ties. 

CHORUS 

Sometimes in life we get a chance at a dream that we hold dear 

The things that make us hesitate are worry, doubt and fear. 

So when your moment comes, just brush those thoughts aside 

And keep in mind the story, of Lady Macdonald’s ride. 

You just remember well the story of Lady Madonald's ride. 

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/pmmuseum/Programs/Building%20the%20Trans%20Canada%20Railroad.pdf