Graveyard shift

Posted by ESC on August 27, 2004

In Reply to: Graveyard shift posted by sara on August 27, 2004

: I took a ghost tour in Savannah, GA, where our tour guide told us the "graveyard shift" referred to people employed to listen for the ringing bells of people buried alive in graveyards for yellow fever victims. Rows of five coffins each were linked together with bells and someone had to sit in the graveyard at night to dig up the coffins in case a bell rung.

It makes a good story! I don't know for sure what the origin of the phrase is. Here's another theory:

GRAVEYARD SHIFT - "The 'graveyard shift' is the shift of workers that starts at midnight.The name refers, according to Wentworth and Flexner's 'Dictionary of American Slang" to 'the ghostlike hour of employment'." From Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988). In West Virginia we called it the "hoot owl shift."

• Graveyard shift Tamio 28/August/04
  • Graveyard shift tamio 28/August/04
    • Graveyard shift art 28/August/04
      • Excavation Henry 28/August/04