Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork

[howard schrager]

Dear Alice
Thanks for responding. It appears the saying was strong in New York in the twenties. The Chicken in the Car saying appeared in the movie A River Runs Through back in the 90's. It was spoken by a letter carrier in Montana.
Yours, Howard Schrager

Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Alice Faber
Organization: Haskins Laboratories
Subject: Re: Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork
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howard schrager wrote:
> I want to ask one more time if anyone knows specifics about the origins of the street rhymes: A Knife and a Fork and a Bottle and a Cork, that's the way to say New York, and Chicken in the Car and the Car Can't go, that's the way to say Chicago. My father learned them in the 20's on the streets of Philadelphia and/or New York.

I heard those from my father (both of them); he would have learned them
in NY, in the 20s. At that time, he might have still been living in the
Bronx, though he spent most of his childhood in Brooklyn (Bensonhurst).

--

Alice Faber

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