pimple ball

[Dennis R. Preston]

Well, down where I come from, you either got a pimple or a ball; they
ain't the same. You can just pop your ol' pimples, but you might
should need your ball lanced.

dInIs (hey! it's late; I been workin' purdy hard; bess I could do)



>Are any of you Northeasterners familiar with the term "pimple ball" for a
>ball used in playground games? We have two cites from the Boston area, but
>aren't precisely sure what the ball is like.  One quote says that they are
>used in a game similar to punchball and that they are "soft, small, white
>balls," but does "pimple" refer to the dimpled surface characteristic of a
>golf ball? Any help appreciated.
>
>Joan Houston Hall, Chief Editor
>Dictionary of American Regional English
>6125 Helen C. White Hall
>600 N. Park St., Madison, WI 53706
>(608) 263-2744
><jdhall at facstaff.wisc.edu>
>http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/dare.html

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736