Hamboning

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 24, 2004, at 12:44 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Hamboning
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>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Hamboning (was: prissy, 1842 (?))
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>> On one of the episodes, Busey hamboned. Unfortunately or, maybe,
>> fortunately, only the hamboning caught my attention. It was the first
>> time that I'd seen a non-black person do the hambone and the first
>> time
>> that I'd seen the hambone done by anyone on national TV since the
>> "Hambone Kids," back in the very early '50's.
>
> White guys hamboning was a regular thing on "Hee Haw".  I believe they
> called it "eephing" (because one guy hamboned, the other one made
> nonsense
> sounds that started eeph, aaph. . . .., or he would play the spoons).
>

I remember "Hee Haw," but I didn't watch it on a regular basis, so I
missed that. Too bad, because I would like to have seen it. And playing
the spoons/bones was another thing that I lacked the manual dexterity
for.

-Wilson Gray