trou (1970)

[hpst@earthlink.net]

Charlie,

No. Seymour Butts is the author of The Nudist Camp which is in the series
of books which includes The Yellow River Flows to the Sea by I.P. Freely
and The Tiger's Revenge by Claude Balls.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 12/26/2006 10:54:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] trou (1970)
>
> May we assume that Dean Thaddeus Seymour (subsequent to the reported
incident, at least) was surnamed "Butts"?
>
> Do New Englanders drop postvocalic trou?
>
> --Charlie
> __________________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:42:58 -0600
> >From: "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> >Subject: Re: trou (1970)
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >    I can say with certainty that the phrase was used already at
Dartmouth College no later than the spring of 1960.  I was in my sophomore
year (1959-1960), when a bizarre incident occurred involving two or
possibly three Dartmouth students: They had traveled to another college (it
was probably a women's college) and dropped their trousers in front of a
women's dormitory.  I'm not sure what the purpose of this exercise was, but
it got them into trouble with both the local police and the Dartmouth
administration.
> >
> >    Perhaps several months before this incident there had been another
incident (I forget just what it was), and the very popular dean (IIRC, his
name was Thaddeus Seymour) called a meeting of the entire freshman class to
provide us some fatherly and administrative advice as to what was
appropriate behavior and what could happen administratively if we violated
those sage rules.  His talk to us was a highlight of the year.
> >
> >    Now, with the trousers-dropping incident having occurred, another
meeting was called.  I'm not sure who called it, but the person who
addressed us was one of the student leaders, and this meeting was but a
pale imitation of the boffo performance put on earlier by the dean.  In any
case, I clearly recall the student leader starting off the meeting by
saying what everyone already knew, viz, that several Dartmouth students had
gone to such-and-such college and "dropped trou."  He absolutely,
positively used that expression.  This could have been the fall of 1959,
but more likely it was the spring of 1960.
> >
> >Gerald Cohen
> >
>
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