Origins of weeds, trees & turf expression

THE MILLION DOLLAR SPEEDWAY A NOVEL

WEEDS, TREES & TURF’S ORIGINS

John Thomas Pierce

Modern weed-spraying equipment, not my Weeds, trees & turf …a cloudy day in Kansas City…

What are the origins for the weeds, trees & turf expression?

Weeds, trees & turf is a 3-word reference to a weed spray train (maybe a euphemism). For Million Dollar Speedway’s purposes it takes on special importance in terms of Racer’s coming of age. The term also illustrates important features of what we do and don’t know about the use of chemicals that assure broader “safety.” Here’s how chapter 11 explains the meaning of Weeds, trees & turf.

Sunday school and bowling leagues afforded both firms' employees interactive opportunities, but the place where they conducted business possessed a name, St. Louis’ Glen Echo golf course. The corporate slogan for the Missouri-Pacific defoliant project originated there among a mixed firm golf foursome. At Glen Echo’s number five tee box, a railroad attorney provided the odd weed spraying project a name, Weeds, Trees & Turf.

Goodtoast speaks …Make sure he has a haircut…

It’s hard to explain the importance (and symbolism) of haircuts across the 1960’s and ‘70s.

They were often used to define male behavior and attitudes, in ways that can only be imagined. Racer thought had been called for a critical job interview but on his return back trip to Kansas city he reasons the railroad hiring process might not have been that critical.

From chapter 11……..

Recalling Edwards’ comment concerning a second Weeds, trees & turf employee, Racer produced a name.

There’s a technician at the college, someone named Andrew Smith, assigned to order chemicals and supplies. His family would definitely benefit from railroad employment. However poorly advised Andy’s popcorn stunt may have been, it had served to focus attention on the Smith’s struggles. Goodtoast borrowed a line from the 13th and Olive play book. Make sure he has a haircut. Racer’s hiring, including the computer detour, took less time than the Amtrak crew needed to back their cars into a departure slot.

This doesn’t have much to do with the railroad but I was always proud I had a slightly better haircut than my aviator recruiter (neither meetings Navy grooming standards). But then again Steve was recruiting across the 1970’s. We’re in the former Alfred P. Murrah building.

This is one of my favorites lines - from Ch12-Big & heavy. By 1979, trackside tangles,

briars and hedges constituted vestiges of a botanical landscape known to the Indians and likely viewed by Missouri’s pioneers. Absent defoliants, raccoons, foxes, opossums and deer chose trackside habitat as a precarious site to raise offspring.

Mainlines can be beautiful but are also lonely. While some trains get places in a big hurry, weed spray trains across my era paced at less than 12-mph. Think of a low-flying crop duster in almost a stall. How about that term crop dusting to describe the use of liquid herbicides. Photo courtesy of ngfan (Gary)