Lt. Everett Bailey in full winter gear, 1943.

(click photo to view larger)

     The men of the 10^th Mountain Division were an educated and worldly lot, and enjoyed classical music and the popular music of the day. Many of the men loved to sing. The Division was made up of skiers and outdoors-men from all over the world, who brought into the unit a wide variety of skiing songs, hiking songs, drinking songs and college and fraternity songs. This interaction of musical influences produced new music of its own.

     The soldiers composed and sang songs satirizing their experiences in the ski troops, and many of them became immortalized in the lore of the 10^th Mountain Division. Many of the veterans of the 10th Mountain Division taught their children to ski during the post-war era, and part of that education usually included singing the old 10^th Mountain songs. Many families of veterans still know the words. This is an old recording of the most famous of these songs, 90 Pounds of Rucksack.

Listen to the song by clicking here.

I was a barmaid in a mountain inn;
There I learned the wages and miseries of sin;
Along came a skier fresh from off the slopes;
He’s the one that ruined me and shattered all my hopes.
Singing:

[Chorus:]
Ninety pounds of rucksack
A pound of grub or two
He’ll schuss the mountain,
Like his daddy used to do.

He asked me for a candle to light his way to bed;
He asked me for a kerchief to cover up his head;
I like a foolish maiden, thinking it no harm;
Jumped into the skier’s bed to keep the skier warm.
Singing:

[Chorus]

Early in the morning before the break of day,
He handed me a five note and with it he did say,
“Take this my darling for the damage I have done.
You may have a daughter, you may have a son.
Now if you have a daughter, bounce her on your knee;
And if you have a son, send the bastard out to ski.”
Singing:

[Chorus]

The moral of this story, as you can plainly see,
Is never trust a skier an inch above your knee.
For I trusted one and now look at me;
I’ve got a son in the Mountain Infantry.
Singing:

[Chorus]

This blog is part of a larger body of research culminating in the publication of the book ‘Heroes in Good Company: L Company, 86^th Regiment, 10^th Mountain Division 1943-1945’ which is available in select bookstores and on amazon.