© 1992 Mary Garvey
Another
of Mary's Columbia River songs. This is
a good song to sing on the Maine coast where many of us still remember the
sardine packing plants here. Quite a
few of my school friends had summer jobs in those plants.
Mary
says "Stella is a beautiful little town on the lower Columbia. The whole town was on piers when I was
growing up."
Carol Rohl and January Men and Then Some – vocals
David Dodson – acoustic bass guitar
I've worked all my life in
the cannery shed
And if I am dying or you think I am
dead
Don't bury my bones but put me instead
In a can in the cannery shed
The cannery shed perches over the
river
When the winter winds blow we freeze
and we shiver
When the boss comes around I just
might have to give her
My opinion of the cannery shed
There's no time to rest and there's no
time to linger
And you'd better move sharp or you
might lose a finger
It's make you stomach turn if you knew
everything here's
Been canned in the cannery shed
We chop off the heads and chop off the
tails
Scoop out the guts and throw them in
the pails
We won't get a rest till the next
schooner sails
From the dock at the cannery sheds
LaFaye he went away and he wrote me a
letter
I tucked it up high in the sleeve of
my sweater
And it slipped and it fell and ended
in the shredder
And got canned in the cannery shed
The cannery boy he's a very happy
fella
If he gets him a girl from the little
town of Stella
I would if I could but I'm not going
to tell ya
What goes on behind the cannery shed
Cannery
Shed
is recorded on the album Herrings in the Bay