Sky-west & crooked

[Linda Sparlin]

Thank you, Rudy.  Interesting that your mother and my grandmother were both
for a time in Shawnee, OK.   My grandfather and uncle went to Texas to work
the oil rigs several times, but I think that grandmother (b. 1877 KY, then
AR and OK) and girls stayed in Tulsa on those occasions.

Linda

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Rudolph C Troike
Sent: 02 December, 2001 11:02 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Sky-west & crooked


I queried my mother (98 in October) about this expression, and surfaced a
recollection of its use when she lived in Palestine, in East Texas, before
her family moved when she was in high school. Her firm impression was that
she had only heard of its being used to refer to handwriting that was very
messy, sort of all over the place. So this gives a pre-1918 datum for it
in East Texas. She said she had not heard it used in Shawnee, OK, where
her family moved, or OK City, where she lived for awhile in the late
1930s.

        Rudy