I don't go there

[David Bowie]

From: "Aaron E. Drews" <aaron at LING.ED.AC.UK>
: On Thu, 20 Jan 2000 Dfcoye at AOL.COM wrote:

: }Last June I heard the phrase "I don't go there" for the first time and
now
: }I'm hearing it everywhere.  I heard it first from a friend visiting from
: }LA, meaning roughly 'I don't allow myself to think about that kind of
: }thing'--A colleague here used it recently in the form "Don't even go
: }there" i.e., 'stop teasing me' in the course of an email exchange on our
: }fac. list-serve. Anyone have any guesses as to how long this has been
: }around and where it originated?

: I noticed my friends from southern California using it in the summer of
: 1996.  It hadn't made it's way to me in Washington DC at the time.

As i recall, it was used in the mid-1980s when i was in high school, and my
high school was in an exurb of Washington DC, so it's probably safe to say
that it was in use in DC in 1996, although it may have been highly
context-restricted or such in its use.

David Bowie                                       Department of English
Assistant Professor                            Brigham Young University
db.list at pmpkn.net              http://humanities.byu.edu/faculty/bowied
   The opinions stated here are not necessarily those of my employer