Language selection


Search veterans.gc.ca

Misinterpreting the Word “Banjo”

Heroes Remember

Misinterpreting the Word “Banjo”

Prison camp ..., I was taken there, sent into work on the foundries, and the foundry was where they used to put the iron, they call that pig iron in English. They put it in big furnaces there, they take it out and a big trolley overhead, it goes back and forth to go from the furnace to the press where they press the iron. There was a long pole about maybe 15-16 feet long and a cup like at the end of that and we’d go and shove it on that piece of pig iron that’s in the furnace and they’d back it out. Then we’d turn that and the trolley would bring it to the press there and we’d get there, had little rakes there, iron handles, rakes - iron, and when they’d come down with press on the iron, it would all turn up just like cornflakes. We’d have to take that off as quick as you could. Sometimes you’d back up ... “C’mon, work, work.” One day a fellow come to me, he says, supposed to be the interpreter, he says, “You go on the wash, on the banjo.” “Banjo, I can’t play the banjo.” You know what the banjo is, right? I thought it was an instrument. So, anyway, called two guards, beats me up. Well, a little foremen comes from behind the furnace. He says, “Ahh, you make fun of ...” I says, “Me, no.” He says, “Yes, you say you can’t play banjo.” So he had his book here in his pocket and his pen. And I said, “Give me a piece of paper.” So, anyway, he gives me a piece of paper and I draw the banjo. “Ahh, that’s not banjo, banjo means go pull down your pants and go . . .” I felt like hitting him but still I . . . oh my God, a few days after a fellow comes, the interpreter, he says, “Me sorry, you not understand.” I says, “Too late now.”

Related Videos

Date modified: