Gander, Newfoundland, care of the stranded in a play

[Miningman]

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Bluenose

Schooner

For other uses, see Bluenose (disambiguation).

Bluenose postage stamp of 1929
History
Name:	Bluenose
Port of registry:	Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Builder:	Smith and Rhuland
Launched:	26 March 1921
In service:	April 1921
Out of service:	1946
Fate:	Foundered on reef 28 January 1946 off Haiti
General characteristics
Type:	Schooner
Displacement:	258 t (284 short tons)
Length:	43.6 m (143 ft 1 in) o/a 34.1 m (111 ft 11 in) lwl
Beam:	8.2 m (26 ft 11 in)
Height:	38.4 m (126 ft 0 in)
Draught:	4.85 m (15 ft 11 in)
Propulsion:	Sails
Mainmast, height from deck	38.4 m (126 ft 0 in)
Foremast, height from deck	31.3 m (102 ft 8 in)
Sail area	930 m2 (10,000 sq ft)
Mainsail area	386 m2 (4,150 sq ft)
Crew:	20

Bluenose was a fishing and racing schooner built in 1921 in Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, Bluenose under the command of Angus Walters became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, serving as a working vessel until she was wrecked in 1946. Nicknamed the "Queen of the North Atlantic,"^[1] she was later commemorated by a replica, Bluenose II, built in 1963. The name Bluenose originated as a nickname for Nova Scotians from as early as the late 18th century.^[2]

It is also on our Dime...been there forever.

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dime_Reverse_2008.jpg

 

Newfoundland Screech

Page issues

Screech

A man kissing a cod during a screech-in ceremony.

Newfoundland Screech is a rum sold in Newfoundland with 40% alcohol by volume. The term screech is a colloquial term that has been used to describe almost any cheap, high alcohol spirit, including moonshine. The term is used in the brand name for this mid-priced rum to associate the brand with this tradition.

It is available in liquor stores both in and outside of Newfoundland and is blended and bottled by the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation, after being imported from Jamaica.^[1] Unlike their counterparts in other provinces, NLC has retained their bottling business. The spirit is widely available in Canada and is also distributed in the New England States (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont) of the United States.

 

Screech-inEdit

Newfoundland Screech is used in a non-obligatory ceremony known as the "screech-in". The "screech-in" is an optional ceremony performed on non-Newfoundlanders (known to Newfoundlanders as a "come from away" or "mainlander") involving a shot of screech, a short recitation and the kissing of a cod. It is often performed either in homes or more commonly in town pubs, such as George Street, St. John's. Most notable for their screech-in traditions would be Trapper John's^[2] and Christian's Bar.^[3] Screech-ins also take place aboard tourist boat excursions such as the Scademia, which adds to the ceremony a sail through The Narrows into St. John's harbor.

The general process of a screech-in varies from pub to pub and community to community, though it often begins with the leader of the ceremony introducing themselves and asking those present if they'd like to become a Newfoundlander. The proper response, of course, would be a hearty "Yes b'y!" Each participant is asked to introduce themselves and where they come from, often interrupted by commentary by the ceremony leader, jokingly poking fun at their accent or hometown. Each holding their shot of Screech, they are then asked "Are ye a screecher?" and are taught the proper response: "'Deed I is, me ol' cock! And long may yer big jib draw!" Translated, it means "Yes I am, my old friend, and may your sails always catch wind."

A cod fish – or any other fish ugly enough to suitably replace the cod – is then held up to lip-level of each participant, who then bestows the fish with a kiss. Frozen fish are used most commonly in the screech-ins which take place on George St., though occasionally a fresher specimen, if available, will be used. Some pubs will also award certificates to those who have become an honorary Newfie once the screech-in is complete.

Some screech-in traditions vary in both the order of events as well as the necessary requirements. Some ceremonies require that the screech-ee eat a piece of "Newfie steak" (a slice of baloney) or kiss a rubber puffin's rear end. Some are also asked to stand in a bucket of salt water throughout the ceremony or that they wear the Sou'wester during the recitation and the drinking of the shot. For group screech-ins, the shots and recitations are generally all done at once. In all cases, no matter what, only a native Newfoundlander can officiate a proper screech-in.

 

 

Contents

[daveklepper]

Leftists who do not believe that there is a menace to the World called Islamic Fundamentalism and who consider Fort Hood, Bengazi, recent London event, and the Palestinian - Israeli quarrel all as isolated matters may, call the Gatestone Institute "extreme right wing, " but anyone who follows its published material, inlcuding material on Soros, Kalt, and Mersheimer, can quickly learn that it deals in facts.  And as far as the Russain-Jewish American, I should be the last person to be accused of spreaading racial prejudice.  Being concernied about the safety of one's family, when many if not most Muslim Arabs are taught to hate Jews and non-Muslims in general, is not racism.  As far as my history of interracial relations:

b.    Segregation

In the late summer and early fall, 1939, my parents and I (following summer camp) spent a few weeks living in Franklin, New Hampshire.  My sister Gertrude had become ill at her summer camp counselor work, and my parents wished to visit each day her during her recovery.  After her recovery, she returned to her studies at the University of Michigan, and my parents and I returned to New York City.  In Franklin, the owner of the home where we rented two rooms had a young daughter of my age, and we began to play together.  But then my parents told me not to join her under any circumstances because the landlord did not wish her daughter to be friends with a young Jew.  Instead, I used my daytime free time to explore the town and watch Boston and Maine Railroad trains pass or stop at the Franklin Station.

 

To return to New York, we took a local taxi to the Franklin station.  A Montreal – Boston express passed by at speed, and then a local, with its wood, open-platform coaches, arrived.   We had a few hours in Concord before boarding the Concord  - GCT Pullman to be attached to The State of Maine at Ayer  or Lowell, MA; and in addition to a restaurant meal, we watched a motion picture show.   I have no memories of the show itself, but very firm memories of the newsreel that preceded it.  We saw German planes bombing Poland.  We saw German soldiers marching through streets of Warsaw.  We saw a Warsaw two-car tram train, both the motor-car and trailer single-truck, deck-roof cars, the smaller trailer probably a converted horsecar, with the sign “Juden” on its side.   We saw the construction of the Ghetto walls, in one case closing off a street interrupting its streetcar tracks.   These pictures remain in my mind almost seventy years later as if I saw them yesterday.

 

Four years later I was on my own traveling to Richmond, Virginia, to visit my sister Lillian, married at that time to Dr .Daniel Hyman, then a flight surgeon in the Army Air Corps.  They lived on Richmond’s north side, and I had specific instructions (from the Main Street Station on the Chesapeake and Ohio train from Charlottesville) to take the Broad and Main car to Broad Street, then the Ginter Park streetcar, changing to the Northside Avenue bus at that Avenue.  In New York City, I frequently rode the Broadway-42^nd Street streetcar, and often the motorman’s seat at the rear of the double-end car was not folded away, and I could enjoy an “observation-car” ride through the city.  On boarding the Ginter Park car (known to me now as a double-truck Birney lightweight), I thought I could do the same in Richmond.  As soon I sat down, a well-dressed black woman said:  “Sonny, the rear of the streetcars is for us black people, please join the white people in the front of the car.”   I was not a Rosa Parks and did what she suggested.   But it reminded me of what I had seen in the newsreel in Concord, New Hampshire, and sparked an interest in learning what were the causes of segregation.

 

As a teenager, I was a delegate from my synagogue to the Inter-Racial Youth Conference of Greater New York.  We met regularly at  the Japanese Methodist Church, because the food provided us was superior there.  (And I learned to eat with chopsticks. amazinjg my parents after one Sunday 3rd Avenue Elevated ride from Bronx Park (Botanical Garedens) to Chatham Square and Chinatown.)  At dances I was a favorite partner with a black girl, who agreed we could be good friends without heading toward mariage.  The block on that score was faith, not color. 

 

c.   The Athena Tragedy

When Dad, Mother, and I arrived at our West 85^th Street brownstone home on our return from Franklin, New Hampshire, a note was waiting for us.  I am unsure who wrote it.  It informed us that my second cousin, Janti Wilkes. his mother, my cousin Bell Klepper Wilkes, and several hundred British school children hoping to spend the war years in Canada, had gone down with the Cunard Liner Athena after a U-boat attack in the Atlantic.  My cousin by marriage and Janti’s father, pediatrician Dr. Edward Wilkes, and Janti’s older brother, Daniel Wilkes, survived.  That tragedy was pushed to the background by the tremendous tragedies of the Holocaust and Dad’s rescue efforts work.  It was until many years later, when I began studying at Yeshivat Beit Orot, that I realized how deeply the loss of Janti affected me.

 

Janti was my virtual twin.  We looked alike, were the same age, enjoyed the same things, and tried to be together as much as possible.   Many a weekend my parents and I would ride the 86^th Street Crosstown streetcar, the last of the “Green Lines,” to the 90^th Street East River ferry to Astoria, and walk or bus to the Ed Wilkes' Sunnyside apartment, until the streetcar was replaced by a bus and almost simultaneously the Triboro Bridge put the ferryboat out of business, and we went by subway.  I wonder today if my love for streetcars is somehow an attempt to make up for the loss of Janti. 

 

When I worked for the Electro-Motive Division of GM as a student engineer in the summer of 1952, a German ex-rocket scientist at EMD made a special effort to be my friend.  Rudy was his first name.  I had already learned that there are good and bad people in every population and returned my friendship with Rudi. 

Deiter was a Hebrew University graduate student from Germany, studying economics, and his thesis was on “Ribit,” interest, and the Jewish prohibition against it and how Jews were able to succeed economically despite this prohibition.  He asked me for help in insuring his thesis was accurate in the use of the English Language.  I was most happy to help him.

 

I would note that thsi thread was not political or ethnic untill Schlimm's first post.  Discussions of treatment of refugees is one thing.  But attacks on the President, and I don't think he is perfect either, were not relevant to the main topic.  I have felt attacked by Schlimm, and I needed to defend myself.  Fortunately, there are some railroad and transit aspects to my autobiographical tales.

[Miningman]

We need a screech-in at this point.

[Deggesty]

Paul of Covington

  I've been familiar with Bluenose for many years and have always wondered about the name.   It must have a local meaning I'm not familiar with.

 

Paul, I have been given to understand that a "Bluenose" is someone from Newfoundland--also called a "Newfie."

[54light15]

Look up the Stompin' Tom Connors song, "Moon Man Newfie" on you tube. Great stuff. The late Stompin' Tom was the unofficial poet laureate of Canada. I saw him in concert once at Massey Hall in Toronto, what a show! I'd post a link but I can't with this new computer of mine. Don't know how. 

[Paul of Covington]

   Thanks, Miningman & Johnny.   I always thought it was an odd name for a schooner.   Now, how did Newfoundlanders get the nickname?   Were their noses blue from the cold and damp?   Were they very straight-laced in interpretation of laws and morals?   Anybody else have questions or comments about Newfoundland? 

[schlimm]

Googling revealed the following:

Bluenose:

Bluenose: noun

1.

a puritanical person; prude.

2.

(initial capital letter). Also, Blue Nose. Canadian.an inhabitant of the Maritime Provinces,especially of Nova Scotia.

3.

Nautical Slang.

1. a sailing vessel of Nova Scotia.
2. a seaman on such a vessel.

Origin of bluenose 

1780-1785

1780-85 (def 2, 3); 1925-30, Americanism (def 1);blue + nose; (def 1) cf. blue law, etc.; (def 2, 3)originally a derisive name for a person residing inNova Scotia before the Loyalists' arrival; allegedly socalled from a variety of potato with a bluish tip,though there is no certain evidence for this or any ofvarious other explanations of the name

The Maritime Provinces of Canada do NOT include Newfoundland.  There are three: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

[wanswheel]

 

https://archive.org/stream/cihm_87009#page/n17/mode/2up

 

https://novascotia.ca/archives/bluenose/results.asp?Search=&SearchList1=1&Language=English

[daveklepper]

Correct.  Newfouindland was a Crown Colony until aftere WWII.

[CMStPnP]

daveklepper

I would note that thsi thread was not political or ethnic untill Schlimm's first post.  Discussions of treatment of refugees is one thing.  But attacks on the President, and I don't think he is perfect either, were not relevant to the main topic.

Why don't you go to professional soldiers dot com and post your threads there where you can engage in a more robust and polite conversation and where the board moderation is better than here.    I have always felt at home in the SF community though I never wore the patch.   One of my best Army buddies went SF.  I served alongside SF when I served in the Army, my CO wore the long tab as did several of my peers.   I have an extended family member that was rescued from a POW camp by the Alamo Scouts in WWII and grew up hearing stories of the rescue.   He was an Army Doctor imprisoned among the survivors of Baton and tended to their care.   Congress named a street after him in the Capitol in his honor.

Some of your threads in my opinion should not exist here as they have little to do with trains, it's just the wrong audience in many cases.    Hence the threads wander off on tangents and into areas they really shouldn't.

[schlimm]

schlimm

 

 

daveklepper

And third, when it was all over and the seven thousand people boarded planes and headed for their final destinations, the people of Gander resumed their lives just as they had before September 11.  They didn’t seek to commercialize or exploit their random acts of kindness, but, thankfully, they did allow a play to be shown on Broadway about them 16 years later – and for permitting their magnificent story to be shared, I am grateful. 

 

 

What a contrast in humanity with the attempted "travel ban" of today.

 

Dave Klepper:  Your original post was totally unrelated to the rails and was quite political.  My comment was on the contrast of then and now.  You cannot tolerate criticism of leaders, perhaps as a consequence of where you live, so you then engaged in smearing any and all who are critical of Israeli policies.

[daveklepper]

CM, I honestly had no idea that Schlimm would bring up Trump's handling of refugees from the Mideast when I posted the story ("first post, and not politicqal") of how Newfoundland's people helped the stranded.  I felt that story was important to passenger transportation, and the follow-up I expected was a lot of stories of stranded passsengers and their care by local people.  And I could respond with a few of my own.

But once Schlim started attcking people who are prtecting my life from terrorists, I had to defend miyself by defending them.  Please read from the beginning of this thread, and you will see that all I did was respond to attacks on me and those protecting my life and others.  Perhaps you have a story about locals' care for stranded passengers that can set this thread in the right direction?  A story that fits the description?

When in the Armyduring and after the Korean War, a close friend had spent half a year in a Chines prison before repatriated in a prisoner exchange.  His staying alive was miracle.  And as a fellow veteran, I do recall all the foolish comments during the candidate nomination process.  Let us all make a conscious effort to stear clear of politics except as they directliy affect transportation.  

i will do my best.  But saving stranded passengers is not political.

[schlimm]

The stranded passengers were a consequence of a gepolitical tragedy, although the Bush WH let the rich Saudi relatives of Osama bin Laden get special transport out of the US early.

As to Israels Apartheid policies, criticism of them is still allowed in the US, as is opposing smear tactics against anyone who dares to denounce them.

[daveklepper]

There is no Apartheid in Israel.  Visit, and I will prove it to you.

Any reader wishing extended discussion on this matter can contact me at [e-mail], and I will provide all the written proof necessary.

 

[Paul of Covington]

   Who was the first European to reach North America?  Was it the Irish monk, Saint Brendan who may have landed in Newfoundland in the sixth century?   I read the book "The Brendan Voyage" by Tim Severin about 25 years ago and really enjoyed it.   He built a leather boat and retraced the possible route of Saint Brendan according to the "Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis."   I plan to re-read it soon, and highly recommend it.   It's available from Amazon in book or Kindle form.

   I know this is only remotely related to Newfoundland, but then...

[Miningman]

Lief Ericsson and the Vikings were first...established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows. circa 1000 AD.

The large car ferry from Cape Breton to Port aux Basques is named the Lief Ericsson. 

[RME]

Miningman

Leif Ericsson and the Vikings were first...established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows. circa 1000 AD.

Of course, they carried on into Vinland, perhaps as far as what is now Wisconsin, from there.  We're fortunate to have Ingstad's work in Grenfell country and what has come after to document the likely 'jumping-off place' for actual continental North American colonization - do islands fully count?

What is the current scholarship on the round tower near Newport, RI?

[Miningman]

Yes can you image discovering a pristine North American continent. 

Of course, I don't think they knew that at the time but they did venture inland.

Was it not a solid continous virgin hardwood forest all the way to Wisconsin?

I have seen a few very small patches of land, an acre or two, along the North Shore of Lake Erie that are pristine, virgin, never been logged. The hardwoods are enormous. Oaks, Ash, Beech, Hickories, Maples, Tulip and Populars, even Chestnuts hanging on here and there. 

More work and discovery unveiling historical significance is required. 

[CMStPnP]

daveklepper

CM, I honestly had no idea that Schlimm would bring up Trump's handling of refugees from the Mideast when I posted the story ("first post, and not politicqal") of how Newfoundland's people helped the stranded.  I felt that story was important to passenger transportation, and the follow-up I expected was a lot of stories of stranded passsengers and their care by local people.  And I could respond with a few of my own.

But once Schlim started attcking people who are prtecting my life from terrorists, I had to defend miyself by defending them.  Please read from the beginning of this thread, and you will see that all I did was respond to attacks on me and those protecting my life and others.  Perhaps you have a story about locals' care for stranded passengers that can set this thread in the right direction?  A story that fits the description?

When in the Armyduring and after the Korean War, a close friend had spent half a year in a Chines prison before repatriated in a prisoner exchange.  His staying alive was miracle.  And as a fellow veteran, I do recall all the foolish comments during the candidate nomination process.  Let us all make a conscious effort to stear clear of politics except as they directliy affect transportation.  

i will do my best.  But saving stranded passengers is not political.

All I am saying was this thread started out nice and was a great thread.    Just the wrong audience that could not respect it........thats all.    Why torture yourself?   Post the human interest threads in a more welcoming area of the internet.    Just stick with Trains on this forum.

https://d26horl2n8pviu.cloudfront.net/pictures/images/000/141/963/large_v3/c4d26887.jpg?1490492153

 

[cx500]

An interesting book by Farley Mowat is "The Farfarers".  While it is certainly not a scholarly piece of writing, and he freely admits it, it is a yarn that tries to explain the many loose ends in the Viking sagas and other fragmentary sources.  It took a long time for the pundits to accept that the Vikings were in North America well before Columbus, simply because it contradicted conventional wisdom of the time.  It is possible that the Vikings were not the first Europeans either, and the people Mowat called the Albans reached Newfoundland centuries earlier.  

Those loose ends that defy today's conventional wisdom should be followed up, whether to prove or disprove Mowat's hunch.  But to deny the possibility without further investigation is repeating past arrogance.

John

 

 

Miningman

Lief Ericsson and the Vikings were first...established a colony at L'Anse aux Meadows. circa 1000 AD.

The large car ferry from Cape Breton to Port aux Basques is named the Lief Ericsson. 

 

[ghCBNS]

 

During the Cold War Era and right up to 1989…….Gander was a well know place for defections to the West from the Soviet Bloc countries.

Aeroflot, Interflug (East Germany) Czechoslovak Airlines and Cubana…..all stopped there and many passengers got their first taste of freedom when allowed into the Gander Terminal Building while refueling…..then would defect during the stopover.

Canada would have an iconic Mountie ‘conveniently’ stationed in the waiting room whom passengers could approach and ask for refugee status in Canada.

 Here's New York Times and LA Times articles from the 1980’s.......

 http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/13/world/a-canada-airport-lures-would-be-defectors.html

 http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-22/news/mn-6066_1_gander

There’s just so much history at Gander Airport.....and sadly, when the modern Terminal Building opened in1959, it probably never saw its full potential. This was right at the dawn of the jet age with the new ‘707s and DC-8s now capable of overflying Gander on transatlantic flights. But go back just a couple of years into the mid ‘50s and a lot of the world’s major airlines were there with their Constellations, DC-4s, DC-6s etc .....Pan Am, TWA, BOAC, Trans-Canada Airlines, El Al Israel, Lufthansa, Air France, Alitalia, Sabena, Scandinavian, Swissair etc were all in Gander and pretty impressive for small town (population today: 10,000) in the wilds of central Newfoundland.

The International Departures Lounge is now on the Heritage Canada - National Trust Top Ten Endangered Places. It’s listed as the "the most important modernist room in Canada” and could be demolished as the airport authority downsizes to a terminal that reflects the current level of traffic …..regional flights on CRJs, B-1900s, Dash-8s, Q-400s and seasonal ‘737s.

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/gander-airport-lounge-named-an-endangered-canadian-space-1.2711544

 

[ghCBNS]

 

Just down the road from Gander......the original Pan American Airways Terminal from the Transatlantic Flying Boat era still stands in Botwood, Newfoundlan (now a museum). It was a stopover on the route between LaGuardia (New York) Shediac, New Brunswick (Moncton) and Foynes, Ireland.

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/pa/pa4506/pa4506-2.jpg

 " target="">

 

[schlimm]

cx500

the people Mowat called the Albans reached Newfoundland centuries earlier

Albans, aka Scots.

[Miningman]

Eddie SheerrA man waves in this screen grab from meteorologist Eddie Sheerr's youtube video taken in Gander (below).

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More than 135 cm of snow has fallen on the town of Gander, Nfld., over the past week after it was hit with two back-to-back Nor’easters.

To put that precipitation in perspective, Torontonians can expect around 115 cm of snow in an entire year.

Rodney Barney, a meteorologist who works with Environment Canada, said in a tweet that the total amount of snow on the ground in Gander is now an incredible 237 cm.

 

Extraordinary images are now coming from the Newfoundland and Labrador town, where the snow is high enough to cover doors and windows completely. In fact, fire crews are cautioning residents to clear an escape out of at least one door or window in case of an emergency. 

One Gander man had to escape out of the second floor of his home in order to start shovelling.

 

 

Clearing crews have been working round the clock trying to restore the town to order. Luckily, there are no reports yet of any injuries or emergencies. There’s plenty of work ahead, though, and some unfortunate news for residents: according to weather reports, Gander can expect more snow and rain on Friday.

Related

• Alaskan woman catches dramatic video of avalanche crashing down Mount Juneau: ‘I got pretty lucky’

People appear to be helping each other out and keeping high spirits. Nelsonia and and her father Thomas Miller told the CBC that they moved to Gander from Jamaica. As of press time, it was 31 degrees Celsius in Kingston, Jamaica.

 

Do they regret moving?

“I find courage, and strength and look on the brighter side. At least we’re not sick, we’re healthy. So I keep doing what I’m doing and [have] a little bit of fun,” Miller told the CBC.

 

 

 

 

[wanswheel]

Excerpt from NY Times, June 2

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/world/canada/has-a-canadian-slur-lost-its-sting.html

Newfoundland, the last of Britain’s North American colonies to join Canada, is enjoying newfound attention thanks to the hit Broadway musical “Come From Away.” But if you see the show, don’t expect to hear talk about “Newfies,” a colloquial term for the island’s residents.

Use the word at your peril: To some Newfoundlanders it is offensive, a vestige of the derision toward locals expressed by some American G.I.s stationed there during World War II.

For decades stoic Newfoundlanders have endured national ridicule, the butt of jokes that cast residents of one of the country’s more remote corners as bumpkins and dimwits. Recently, though, a sociologist at McMaster University in Ontario has been looking into whether the term retains its sting among younger people. He found that attitudes were mixed and that time had diluted the word’s potency.

There is evidence of the word’s use as early as 1938, but according to lore, the term’s full fury developed during the war, when soldiers rode between bases on the Newfoundland Express, the island’s now defunct poke-along train. The train was sarcastically called the “Newfie Bullet,” and “Newfie” became synonymous with all things slow. “Newfie” appeared in a dictionary of American slang published during the war.

[Firelock76]

Quite true Wanswheel, Lady Firestorm's mother is a Newfoundlander and when Lady F wanted to get a rise out of her she'd call her a "Newfie."

"A Newfie is a DOG!" Lady F's mom would reply, before taking a swing at her, which always missed!

Lady F would always refer to her herself as a "Half-Newfie," which irritated Mom just a much.

By the way, Mom always referred to herself as a Newfoundlander, NOT a Canadian. There was quite a difference in those days.  After all, Newfoundland is the SENIOR British colony in North America!

We've got a framed photo of the "Newfie Bullet" on the kitchen wall, transiting St. John's Bowring Park and kickin' up the snow drifts.  Newfoundlanders had a joke of their own about the "Bullet"...

A woman on the "Bullet" yells "Mr. Conductor! I'm going into labor!"  The conductor replies "Missus, if you knew your time was comin' why'd you get on the train?"

"When I got on the train I wasn't pregnant!"