Cheers

[Wilson Gray]

Got-dammit, Larr! We blew grass and dropped 'shrooms jes' like city folk!
Twarn't no need for that kinda cuttin' remark.
-Wilson

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 9:57 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Cheers
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 9:34 PM -0400 8/24/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
> >Reminds me of UC Davis's "Bossie-Bossie-Cow-Cow!"
> >Some may recall that cows were once (are still?) generically named
> "Bossie."
> >The cow thing makes reference to UC Davis's origin in the now-defunct
> >University of California Farm School at Davis. For some reason,
> >"Agricultural and Mechanical" (> "A&M") didn't catch on in California
> >educational circles. So instead of "California A&M University," it's UC
> >Davis. Nevertheless, we alumni and students style ourselves as the
> >"California Aggies."
> >
> >-Wilson
>
> Better that than "the UC Winos"   ;-)
>
>
> LH
>
> >
> >On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 5:44 PM, Peter McGraw
> ><mrlanguageperson at verizon.net>wrote:
> >
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>  -----------------------
> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Peter McGraw <mrlanguageperson at VERIZON.NET>
> >>  Subject:      Cheers
> >>
> >>
>
> >>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>  I just celebrated my 50-year=A0reunion with about 100 other members of
> the
> >>  =
> >>  Class of 1959 of West Linn [OR] High School.=A0 Among the=A0e-mail
> >>  messages=
> >>   we have been exchanging before and after this event were some
> >>  reminiscence=
> >>  s of one of our oldest teachers (also a former coach), who would
> sometimes
> >>  =
> >>  enliven the=A0"pep assemblies" that preceded football games=A0by
> leading
> >>  th=
> >>  e student body in cheers=A0used at West Linn games in "the old
> days."=A0
> >>  On=
> >>  e classmate says this teacher would have been approaching age 70 by the
> >>  tim=
> >>  e we knew him, so the cheers were probably from the 1920s.=A0 One=A0of
> >>  thes=
> >>  e, as this same classmate recalls it,=A0went: =0A=0A"'Oscee Wow
> >>  Wow!=0A"'Wh=
> >>  iskey Wee Wee!=0A"'Ol' eye mucky eye!' (or something like
> >>  that).=A0=0A"Then=
> >>  , with his arms down and in a low voice [he would] simply say
> >>  'Wow.'"=0A=0A=
> >>  The third line seems to invite a fourth line concluding with the rhyme
> >>  "Wes=
> >>  t Linn High," but this classmate doesn't remember such a line.=A0 I
> can't
> >>  s=
> >>  ummon up a recollection of this teacher leading this particular cheer,
> but
> >>  =
> >>  I do remember hearing the cheer itself somewhere.=A0 =0A=0AThe words
> could
> >>  =
> >>  be nothing more than freely invented nonsense, of course, but it
> >>  also=A0see=
> >>  ms just possible they might be a garbled version of some earlier, no
> >>  longer=
> >>   understood ditty of some kind--especially "Ol' eye [=3Dholy?] mucky
> eye."=
> >>  =A0 Something along the lines of the children's jump rope ditties that
> >>  have=
> >>   been traced back to old magic spells.=A0 =0A=0AThree questions for the
> >>  lis=
> >>  t:=0A=0A1) Has anyone else heard this same cheer (or a variation on
> >>  it)?=A0=
> >>   =0A=0A2) Has anyone heard other cheers like it?=0A=0A3) Does anyone
> have
> >>  a=
> >>  ny information or thoughts on the origin of this or similar
> >>  cheers?=0A=0APe=
> >>  ter McGraw=0A(happily retired from Linfield College)
> >>
> >>  ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >-Wilson
> >---
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come
> >from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >-Mark Twain
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to come
from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org