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The Tiniest Bit of the Powder (Patreon 2017)

from Mary Crowell's Patreon: Year Two by Mary Crowell

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about

"The Tiniest Bit of the Powder" was inspired by The Radium Girls, a book by Kate Moore I read. (It's an ARC that the lovely Amy McNally gave me, but the book came out in May 2017.) Radium Girls is about the watch and instrument dial painters in the early twentieth century. They painted them with a mixture of water, gum arabic, and powder that included radium, so they would glow in the dark. And they licked their paint brushes to point them as they were instructed.

This did not have a happy ending.

Also this song was written as part of a weekly song writing challenge. The prompt was "after all ______________."

If you like what you hear and want to help decide what I write next come join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/DrMaryCCrowell

lyrics

The Tiniest Bit of the Powder
Copyright 2017 by Mary Crowell
Inspired by The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore (Copyright 2017)

Albina and Molly
Ella and Grace
In Orange, New Jersey
You worked in the place—
The factory on Third Street
With beautiful paint.
You mixed it up daily
With not one complaint
And painted the trays full of dials.

The tiniest bit of the powder
Mixed with the water and gum,
You girls lipped your brushes to point them,
And happily chatted with chums.

Chorus:
Radium Girls
There are stories about you
Radium girls
Your beautiful glow
Radium Girls
Your bones were too fragile
Radium Girls
Your Dials in a row

Bridge:
Orange, New Jersey and
Ottawa, Illinois

Catherine and Charlotte and
Olive and Pearl
The Radium Dial
Where the luckiest of girls
Got jobs in the cleanest,

most healthful of work.
And playing with paint
Was your favorite perk
The ‘ghost girls’ would glow like their dials.

The tiniest bit of the powder
Would get in your clothes and your hair.
You could see it best in the darkness
How the dust would hang in the air.

Chorus

Sisters and cousins
All glowing at night
But in just a few years,
You weren’t feeling alright.
The dentists and doctors
were worried, confused
The companys’ treasurers
flatly refused
To connect this with painting the dials.

The tiniest bit of the powder
Was safe as safe as could be,
But day after day of ingesting it
Some felt it first in the knees.

Bridge:
Molly had gotten a toothache
And then her condition got worse.
Her bones began aching then rotting
As if she were under a curse.

Chorus
After all they had said about radium
You girls were excited to be
Getting to work with that magic.
You glowed with delight we could see.

Chorus

Tag:
Radium Girls
Radium Girls
Radium Girls
Your dials in a row.

credits

from Mary Crowell's Patreon: Year Two, released November 30, 2018

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about

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Mary Crowell Athens, Alabama

Mary Crowell is a singer/songwriter and piano teacher who loves mythology and playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Her Patreon is here: www.patreon.com/DrMaryCCrowell
She may be seen at science fiction and filk conventions performing and accompanying concerts on piano and occasionally clarinet.
Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour is her third solo album and is a mythic musical journey! ... more

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