who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «They always had a celebration every year when I was a kid. And us kids looked forward to that. For we could shoot fire crackers till who laid the rail.» —in University of Illinois at Springfield Oral History Collection D618. Dinsmore, R.T. (Robert Truman) Interview and Memoir (Iowa) , 1979. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
After our chat about tongue twisters, a Chicago, Illinois, listener shares one that looks much easier than it sounds: Irish wristwatch. This is part of a complete episode.
Related
Michael from Jones, Michigan, says he was stationed on a U.S. Army base in Germany in the early 1960s. If there was a gust of cold wind, a fellow soldier would say the hawk’s out. This expression is largely associated with Chicago, Illinois...