who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «Thanks to the farmers and their livestock, we had scrambled eggs, bacon, and roast beef ’til who laid the rail.» —“Over Cokes” in Eldora Hi-Lites Eldora High School Mar. 24, 1950. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In a 1968 list of Cheyenne High School slang that ran in newspapers around the United States, Clyde, written like the man’s name, meant one’s head or mind. The Wyoming students’ examples included Use your Clyde! and put it out of your Clyde...
The words cushy, cheeky, and non-starter all began as Britishisms, then hopped across the pond to the United States. A new book examines what happens when British words and phrases migrate into American English. Also, if you speak a language besides...