benny?

[Wilson Gray]

You're welcome, Jon.

I'm kinda surprised, since, until some date in the 'Fifties that I've
now forgotten, the WWII GI Bill was still in force. There were multi
articles in the paper about the looming deadline. In fact, I myself had
originally tried to "put on the [war]suit" before that date so as to
get those bennies. Unfortunately, I flunked the vision test. However,
on a second try, I was able to beat the vision test and I was enlisted.
But, by that time, the WWII GI Bill had expired. However, the later -
and far inferior, bennies-wise - Vietnam GI Bill was made retroactive
to 1960. So, I was able to take advantage of the later,
better-than-nothing GI Bill with its inferior bennies.

I forgot to mention some real benny pork. When you went on leave, you
didn't merely continue to receive your regular pay, but you were also
reimbursed for the free housing and the three free meals a day that you
would have received, had you not chosen to go on leave. So, you were
paid more money to vacation than you were paid to work. And, if you
went to a place where there was another unit of the Army Security
Agency, then, as a visiting fireman, you could still sleep and eat for
free. Of course, this was not SOP. If you got caught. But no enlisted
man would rat out a fellow EM and the officers and NCO's knew their
troops only as names on a list and not by race, creed, color, or sexual
orientation. Hence, the sudden appearance of two black guys in a
theretofore lily-white unit did not set off any alarms.

[Just heard a guy on TV speaking of "French benefits."]

-Wilson Gray

On Jun 16, 2005, at 7:01 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: benny?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> Thanks much, Wilson. Your message instantly becomes the _locus
> classicus_ for information on benefit-type "bennies" in 1959.
>
> At one time I was confident that I'd find '50s cites that referred to
> the GI  Bill, but I never did.
> They might be out there somewhere, though.
>
> JL
>
> Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: benny?
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> On Jun 15, 2005, at 10:51 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: Re: benny?
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> Wilson, was this in common use in the army in the '50s? Could you
>> provide a context or an example of the bennies referred to?
>>
>> JL
>
> Yes, it was in common use. I knew a guy named Benjamin who refused to
> let anyone call him "Benny" because he didn't want to have to deal with
> all the bad jokes and puns at his expense.
>
> "Bennies" referred referred both to the basic "three hots and a cot and
> you don't have to buy no clothes" and to such things as thirty days per
> annum of paid leave ("furlough" wasn't used in my day, for some
> reason), T[emporary]D[ut]Y," which earned you extra pay for doing your
> normal job at someplace other than your home post, longevity pay (an
> automatic rise in base pay for every two years of service), proficiency
> pay (you had to pass a test to be awarded the grade of P[roficiency
> Level] I, but the upgrade to P II was automatic, though you had to pass
> another test to reach P III), hardship pay and combat pay for being
> stationed in West Berlin, free medical and dental, free flights to
> anyplace in the world on a space-available basis on Air Force transport
> planes, and space was always available, the Post Exchange, which sold
> Rolexes and Burberry, to mention just a couple of brand names, at
> give-away prices, cigarettes by the carton at a price so low as to be
> inconsequential, and, if you had the right
> M[ilitary]O[ccupation]Specialty, swift promotion.
>
> TDY was a favorite benny because, though you were at temporary location
> B, you were still under the command of your home post A. This meant
> that, once the workday ended, you could do as you pleased, since post B
> had no record of your existence except for your name on the duty roster
> and the records at post A merely stated that you were on TDY. So, you
> didn't have to be present for reveille or bed check or deal with any
> pain-in-the-ass duties such as pulling motor stables or burn-bag
> detail. It was like being on a paid vacation without using up any of
> your leave time.
>
> And, of course, there was the re-enlistment benny: an extra thirty days
> of paid leave and a minimum bonus of $1500. If you were, as I was, a
> graduate of the Army Language School, a further benny was that you
> could go back to the Language School - in my day, easily the poshest
> post in the Army for enlisted personnel - and take any language that
> you pleased, even the one in which you already held a diploma. On your
> original enlistment, the language that you studied was determined by
> your placement on the entrance exam.
>
> -Wilson
>
>> Wilson Gray wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Wilson Gray
>> Subject: Re: benny?
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>> --------
>>
>> On Jun 15, 2005, at 4:09 PM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>>> Poster: Jesse Sheidlower
>>> Subject: Re: benny?
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> -
>>> -
>>> --------
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 15, 2005 at 03:04:39PM -0500, Rachel Shuttlesworth wrote:
>>>> From a story in the Chicago Tribune, located at
>>>> http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi
>>>> -0506150258jun15,1,6069459.story?page=2
>>>>
>>>> "We don't really talk about healthy anywhere in our restaurant,"
>>>> Hirshberg said. "That's very intentional. Not because it isn't. We
>>>> want
>>>> them to enjoy the food for the food, and then to feel that health is
>>>> a
>>>> benny."
>>>>
>>>> I can find "benny" in the OED meaning overcoat and Benzedrine.
>>>> Trying
>>>> to
>>>> find other examples of this usage online brings up Benny's Hinn,
>>>> Hill,
>>>> Goodman, etc. I found one case of British slang where "benny" is
>>>> defined
>>>> as losing one's temper
>>>> (http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/fullmonty/def/benny.htm). What is
>>>> its
>>>> meaning above? Is it being used to mean "added benefit" or something
>>>> else?
>>>
>>> Yes, it's "benefit". HDAS has this with a Military label, first
>>> example
>>> 1970, though Ben or Bill will now post an example from 1915.
>>
>> I certainly hope so, since I first heard it in the Army in the
>> 'Fifties. Naturally, there's no documentation, not even a grafitto on
>> the exterior wall of a consolidated messhall at Fort Devens, MA, about
>> which source some putz has already complained.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Jesse Sheidlower
>>> OED
>>>
>>
>>
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