Hopping John and Simping Jinnie (1860)

Bapopik at AOL.COM Bapopik at AOL.COM
Mon Aug 26 23:39:07 UTC 2002


   DARE has 1838, then 1885 for "Hopping John."  This is my second citation
between those two.  I don't know if the next DARE volume has "Simping
Jinnie."  DARE has the very late 1950 for "Limping Kate" and 1952 for
"Limping Susan," both from our PADS.
   I've been going through the NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN'S LETTERS AND DIARIES
database, new from Alexander Street Press (Editor at AlexanderSt.com) and the
University of Chicago.  I typed in the usual: cake, pie, soup, sandwich, ice
cream, iced tea, gumbo, Windy City, Tar Heel, Hoosier, slang, et al.  "Chess
pie" isn't here.  "Jambalaya" isn't here.  The database is only moderately
helpful.  Full text of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE would have been better, but those
Chicago folks don't ask me.
   Here's one of the gems:


De Treville, Mary Darby, fl. 1861-1865.  "_Letter from Mary Darby De
Treville, 1860_."
In SOUTH CAROLINA WOMEN IN THE CONFEDERACY, VOL. 2, Mrs. James, Columbia, SC:
State Company, 1907.
Pg. 183.

   When we had gone about a mile, one of the Virginia girls said," Well, have
left Columbia, and I hope I'll never see 'Hopping John' and 'Simping Jinnie'
again."  Looking at me, she laughingly said, "What is the matter, Mary Darby,
you look as if you had never eaten those dishes?"  "No," I replied, "I do not
like 'Hopping John,' and have never heard of 'Simping Jinnie.'"  On my return
to Columbia I asked Aunt Eliza what "Simping Jinnie" was, and learned it was
peas and hominy cooked together.



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