Corn Willy and Red Dog

[StephenLawson]

Anyone correctly identifying these topics and providing correct descriptions will be offered a free CD from my website.

[Les]

Anyone correctly identifying these topics and providing correct descriptions will be offered a free CD from my website.

"Corn willy" was an American nickname given to the hash or corned beef hash fed to troops. There are ways of making hash from scratch, or...straight out of a can served up hot, warm, or congealed/cold. I don't know the derivation of the nickname, although I do know it was applied to more than food at times. One of the hills in the Meuse-Argonne was called "Corn Willy" hill, possibly because they were expecting to be ground up into "hash" before the offensive there was over. The corned beef coming from the British or French sometimes got the nickname "monkey meat" or even worse....

Red dog? I'm not so certain of this one. It's not Red Dog beer brewed by Miller.... ;-)

"Red dog" roads were around in rural areas, not all that long ago. A red dog road was a crushed rock or "metalled" road (English term), with stone being laid down on graded or scraped tracks or roads and then rolled with a roadway roller. Crushed stone roadways were necessary to keep roads and tracks from turning into muddy troughs following rainy weather, or in low lying poorly drained areas. Construction crews (or engineering units) would get the job of laying out, constructing, and with help from other units, maintaining road ways for the movement, of men, horses, vehicles, artillery, supplies of all sorts that were needed to keep things and the war moving along.

Depending on the extent of the "red dog" laid down, the road may in fact be a macadmized road.

Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam in the early 1800s. It consisted of creating three layers of stones laid on a sloped subgrade with side ditches for drainage. The first two layers consisted of angular hand-broken aggregate, maximum size 3 inches (75 mm), to a total depth of about 8 inches (200 mm). The third layer was about 2 inches (50 mm) thick with a maximum aggregate size of 1 inch (25 mm). The layers would be compacted with a heavy roller, causing the angular stones to lock together with their neighbours.

Gravel, or macadamized roads can get a bit wearing on the feet after a while because the surface is hard, unyielding, ang the feet will slide a little. These roads are hard on shoes, and feet (which will get red and tender after a while, or give you "red dogs."

"Corn willy" for the gut, and "red dog" for the feet ?

Les

[StephenLawson]

I'll give you half for the corn willy! The Red Dog is still up for grabs.

[Ralph A]

Red Dog was a fast-action card game played by US servicemen during World War II.

[StephenLawson]

Greetings all; Sorry for the long delay... I have been experiencing sign on problems...Seems to be fixed now. Ok for the question...Corn Willy has been answered. Red Dog is in fact a fast playing card game but its origins predate WWII by about fifty years that I can trace back. Here are a couple of instructors from the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudon France in 1918 engaged in the game. Even though it took two tries I'll spring for two free CD's from my site gents. One for each correct answer. PM with your snail mail addresses here first. Then to go to my website and choose your topic. Just send me an e-mail from there and identify yourselves.

Edited May 8, 2006 by StephenLawson

[Ralph A]

"Red Dog" is mentioned in Jack London's books... his 19th century characters call it "Acey-Deucey" or "In-between."

What is your website?

Edited May 8, 2006 by Ralph A

[StephenLawson]

"Red Dog" is mentioned in Jack London's books... his 19th century characters call it "Acey-Deucey" or "In-between." What is your website?

wwi-n-plastic.com

Edited May 9, 2006 by StephenLawson