What It's Like

The power of people standing together

Welcome to new subscribers and regular readers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “What’s It Like?” by John McCutcheon (1990). If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.

Photo: Thad Zajdowicz from Altadena, California. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Background

(998 words)
In the U.S., there is a canned food called Spam, a lunch meat that was first made back in 1937. It’s made by the Hormel company. Spam is made of ground pork and potatoes. It comes in a can, so it’s easy to ship around the world. It can also be stored for a long time.

The working conditions were not safe in the factories that made Spam and other products. Wages had been reduced to $8.25 an hour. So, in factories around the country, the workers went on strike from 1985-1986.

The Song

Imagine a factory. A woman is working there. She is taking the inside parts (snatching guts) out of a pig. She’s taking the hair off the skin. This woman is making Spam. The woman’s job is to cut up the meat, standing for eight hours a day.

Do you know what it's like to work in there?
Well, you start snatching guts and scraping hair

In order to do her job, she has to use a large knife. Maybe once or twice a month, the woman is almost injured (a close call).
And close calls, sure, I've had a few
Each month you figure one or two

Time Clock (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Workers in factories often have a time card and have to “punch in and out” to show how many hours they worked that day.

But you punch the clock and you give what's due
And you learn more about Spam than you wish you knew

Sometimes, the workers are not treated well. Sometimes, they argue with (talk back to) the managers.

Do you know what it's like when you first talk back?
Well, you've worked like hell and you ain't been slack (lazy)
But the only thing they understand
Comes down the line in four-inch cans

When a worker has been treated unfairly (be burned), she might fight back (shove). However, as a child, she was taught not to make things difficult for others (don’t rock the boat / don’t make a scene) and not to cause a scandal (don’t draw attention). If she takes a stand, she ignores (turns her back on) how she was taught to behave.

So you learn to shove when you know you're burned
But you're turning back on all you've learned:
Like, "Don't rock the boat", "Don't make a scene"
"Don't draw attention", do you know what I mean?

One of her coworkers called her to say that the union was going to vote on whether or not to go on strike at the factory. She decided to go to the union meeting.

Do you know what it's like to get the call?
"There's a strike vote down at the union hall"
So you load up the kids and you drive to town
But you ride without talking the whole way down
'Cause you're thinking about the days at home
Long afternoons when you're there alone
But you're not the first, and when your kids ask why
You say, "We might not win, but we'll damn well try!"

Workers on strike for better pay. Photo: Fibonacci Blue (Wikimedia Commons)

The woman, along with other union members, vote to go on strike. They form a line of strikers in front of the factory. They probably hold signs to protest the unfair treatment. It’s winter, and it’s terribly cold (ten below = -23C).

Do you know what it's like to walk the line
At ten below in the wintertime?

The governor of the state of Minnesota called the National Guard, a kind of military force, to go to the factory and stop the strike. The woman thinks that maybe she shouldn’t have gotten involved.

When the sheriff and the National Guard
Will push you around in your own front yard
And the cars roll by with their shouts and stares
Till you think no one in the whole town cares
And you say, "I wasn't brought up this way! What's happening to my life?
"What will my family say? They think I'm just a mother and a wife!"

She is arrested. The police put handcuffs on her wrists. She is taken to jail. She can’t sleep and wonders if what she has done was right because she was always taught not to break the rules.

Do you know what it's like to get arrested in your own hometown
In the broad daylight with your children around?
And you feel the steel close on your wrists
And your heart and your hands are clenched to fists
And you lie in your cell and you wrestle all night
So full of doubt but so sure you're right
Because you’ve learned, "Don't break the law!", "Just mind the rules!"
"Jail is for criminals and luckless fools!"

The woman thinks she is alone (all on your own) until she finds other people like her who are also fighting back.

Do you know what it's like when you think you're out there all on your own
And you suddenly find that you're not alone?
It's there in the papers and on TV:
People who seem lots like me

The others are also normal people who somehow find that they are all experiencing a very difficult time. But they’re in the fight together, and that gives them strength.

Little folks who find they're hurled
Into the fires of this world
Where they're forged to silver and they're beaten to gold
Till they find they have some strength untold

The woman draws energy and hope from the people around her, and she decides to continue the fight.

So, I'll take their hand and I’ll stand the line
And we’ll rise to battle one more time

Workers in many countries around the world and at many times in history have stood together to demand better conditions.

There is great power when large numbers of people stand together against a big opponent.

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Question

What does it mean when someone is forged to silver or beaten to gold?

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Vocabulary

snatch 引ったくる

guts もつ

talk back 言い返す

(be) slack 怠ける

turn (your) back on 捨てる、裏切る

stare 睨む、じっと見る

handcuffs 手錠

clench your fist 拳を握る

cell 檻

wrestle (lit.格闘する) can’t sleep at all

on your own 一人で

(be) hurled 投げつけられる

(be) forged 鍛造される

untold 未知

Sources

Risen, James (1986-01-22). "National Guard Closes Hormel's Plant". Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-01-22-mn-31443-story.html . Accessed 7 February 2025.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2025, January 20). “1985–1986 Hormel Strike”. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985%E2%80%931986_Hormel_strike . Accessed 7 February 2025.

For more information on the music of John McCutcheon, please visit his website at https://www.folkmusic.com/ .

英検2級以上 | 名曲で英語を学ぶ