childhood rhymes

[Rachel Henderson]

Don't know if it aid the discussion, but I grew up on the streets of Staten
Island in the 70's....we played stick ball (kick-the can, etc), and used a
'spawldeen' (-in, barely audible g)

Great game, by the way...until someone's dog either slobbered on the ball,
or bit a chunk out of it.



Just for the sake of accuracy:  We always "pronounced the g."

Also, the "aw" in "Spaulding" is not the /a/" in "spalpeen."

>We always used these balls. They're pink rubber and real bouncy.The
>manufacturer's name, Spalding, is printed clearly on each ball, and that's
>what we called 'em: Spaldings.
>This was in Manhattan in the '50s.
>
>I've never heard anybody use the word "spaldeen."

"Spaldeen" appears in my RHUD. Newspaper search shows it from 1968 (NYT).
Supposedly the spelling reflects some people's (children's) pronunciation.
I suppose a pronunciation like this is believable (was it what could be
written "Spaldin'" perhaps?), but the standardization is odd: I don't find
"spauldeen", "spaldene", etc. I suppose that the word was popularized by
some writer who invented the spelling "spaldeen" to express somebody's
childhood recollections. Possibly the spelling is modeled on "spalpeen"?