Props

[George Thompson]

We have discussed "props" here before, a couple of years ago.  I will
cite again the authoritative source I quoted then: The First New Haven
Slang Dictionary, compiled at the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center
by Alex, age 14, with the assistance of Clifton, age 15, Doug, age 15
and Robert, age 14 and published about 1996.  This book is available in
better reference collections everywhere -- which is to say, it's
available at Bobst Library, NYU, and all of the rest of you are using a
library with an inferior reference collection.

"Props.  Respect.  That kid got mad props.  Everyone gets quiet when he
talks."

The last time I reached someone who knew what I was talking about when
I called the publisher, (The Integrated Arts Program at the Whalley
Ave. juvy,) I was told that the original printing of the FNHSD had been
accidentally thrown out, and that there would be a Second NHSD.  I
haven't been able to confirm this second proposition.  Perhaps Larry
Horn, working on the scene, can do better.

The FNHSD is about 15 pages long -- the pages are unnumbered -- but it
really does deserve to be in more libraries than it is.  Not many more,
to be sure, but it is of some interest from a number of academic points
of view.  If it has been reprinted, a few of you should have your
library order a copy.  The original printing had an attractive cover,
which we unfortunately destroyed when Bobst bound the copy here.  The
cover is credited to Devore, age 12 and Miguel, age 15.

By the way: my wife teaches in a high school near Coney Island, and so
is fluent in Street.  When I first heard her refer to a reform school
as a "juvy" (JUVEnile) I registered "judy" (JUvenile DEtention).  I
accept the fact that "juvy" is standard, but is "judy" recorded
anywhere else besides in my ears?

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African
Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.