Entry from April 25, 2005
Seven O’Clockers
"Seven o'clockers" were those people (about 200) who lived in Philadelphia and wrote the 7 a.m. Reading Railroad train to Penn Station in New York. Then, at 5 p.m., they'd take the two-hour ride back home to Philly.
Perhaps some "seven o'clockers" still exist, but the term is mainly historical. If you're lucky enough to find a good job in New York, why live in Philadelphia?
The Lexicon of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area
by Dennis Stanley Lebofsky
A dissertation
presented to the
Faculty of Pinceton University
in candidacy for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy
Recommended for acceptance by the
Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics
January 1970
Pg. 144:
Seven o'clocker - a Philadelphian who commutes daily between New York and Philadelphia.
19 February 1930, New York Times, pg. 10:
Seven o'Clockers' Klub Holds Annual Banquet
While Commuting From Here to Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 18. - The third annual banquet of the Seven o"clockers Klub was held tonight in two cars and three overflow platfors attached more or less distantly to a Reading Railroad train. The Seven o'Clockers are, of course, those 200 proud souls who like the Philadelphia air - or locomotion - so well that they speed four hours a day commuting to business in New York.
(...)
A new song was tried, however, and it was voted to give it the place of honor hitherto enjoyed by a folk-balled about Esquimaux. The words, composed by some anonymous minstrel, are:
Rickety, tickety, tickety rock,
We leave Philly at 7 o'clock,
Leave New York smack at five;
Ride the Reading, be alive -
Rah, rah rah,
Seven o'Clockers. Rah, Rah!
9 January 1943, New York Times, "War Shunting Luxury Club Cars Off Railroad Lines in the East," pg. 8:
The Reading's Seven O'Clocker from Philadelphia has been discontinued after some twenty years of special service.
4 August 1948, New York Times, pg. 21:
He was a former officer of the Seven O'clockers Club, an organization of businessmen of this city (Philadelphia - ed.) who commuted daily on the Reading Railroad to New York.
Perhaps some "seven o'clockers" still exist, but the term is mainly historical. If you're lucky enough to find a good job in New York, why live in Philadelphia?
The Lexicon of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area
by Dennis Stanley Lebofsky
A dissertation
presented to the
Faculty of Pinceton University
in candidacy for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy
Recommended for acceptance by the
Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics
January 1970
Pg. 144:
Seven o'clocker - a Philadelphian who commutes daily between New York and Philadelphia.
19 February 1930, New York Times, pg. 10:
Seven o'Clockers' Klub Holds Annual Banquet
While Commuting From Here to Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 18. - The third annual banquet of the Seven o"clockers Klub was held tonight in two cars and three overflow platfors attached more or less distantly to a Reading Railroad train. The Seven o'Clockers are, of course, those 200 proud souls who like the Philadelphia air - or locomotion - so well that they speed four hours a day commuting to business in New York.
(...)
A new song was tried, however, and it was voted to give it the place of honor hitherto enjoyed by a folk-balled about Esquimaux. The words, composed by some anonymous minstrel, are:
Rickety, tickety, tickety rock,
We leave Philly at 7 o'clock,
Leave New York smack at five;
Ride the Reading, be alive -
Rah, rah rah,
Seven o'Clockers. Rah, Rah!
9 January 1943, New York Times, "War Shunting Luxury Club Cars Off Railroad Lines in the East," pg. 8:
The Reading's Seven O'Clocker from Philadelphia has been discontinued after some twenty years of special service.
4 August 1948, New York Times, pg. 21:
He was a former officer of the Seven O'clockers Club, an organization of businessmen of this city (Philadelphia - ed.) who commuted daily on the Reading Railroad to New York.
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