learn something new every day

[Wilson Gray]

"Bring smoke on" was in use by black G.I.'s in Germany in 1961. I first
heard it over the Christmas holidays in 1960 from a friend, William, in St.
Louis who had been stationed at the same German village, Baumholder, that I
was in the process of being shipped out to. Since it was already in use
everywhere by the time that I got to Germany only a couple of weeks later, I
figured that it was a bit of GI slang that William had picked up in
Baumholder and brought home.

Perhaps I should have continued my reading of Vietnam memoirs. I've never
seen "bring smoke" in print. I've never looked for it in HDAS since I know
it only as an odd bit of GI jargon that was dead to me as soon as I had
"taken off the suit."

I'd never heard "bring P" until someone else from St. Louis, Charles Ray
("Ray Charles" reversed, making his name easy to remember over the years)
shipped in to Baumholder. Pretty much all that he talked about was "bringing
P." As time passed and more new people shipped in, "bring P" continued to be
a St. Louis thing in my mind. Even in West Berlin, the only people that I
ever heard use it were also black GI's from St. Louis. "Get some P" and "P
down heavy" were common St. Louisisms when I was a teenager, so it had never
occurred to me that, whether spelled "P" or "pee," it was anything but P
for  "piece (of pussy)" or "pussy" and not "pee" for "piss." Even if that
possibility had occurred to me, I would have written it off as yet another
good BE expression stolen by The Man and fucked up by him. :-)

You know, if it wasn't for us, English would still be the language of the
King James Bible. ;-)

Oddly enough, being stationed in Vietnam was considered to be a far better
deal that being stationed in Germany, in my day. At least it was supposed to
be better if you were in the Security Agency and, therefore, a spook. (Being
referred to as a "spook" by white people took some getting used to, since,
theretofore, the only slang meaning that I knew for "spook" was as a milder
but just as annoying replacement for "nigger.") It was said that members of
the Agency in Vietnam dressed in mufti and lived in 5-star hotels.

-Wilson



On 2/15/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> 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: learn something new every day
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> So "bring smoke on" antedates the mid to late ' 60s ?
>
>   In fact, it's far more common in Vietnam memoirs than "bring pee on,"
> which the writers (or their copy editors) never spell as "bring P."
>
>   So naive am I that I assumed "bring pee" to refer to
>
>   a. a stream of machine-gun tracers at night, and
>
>   b. the physiological result of having a stream of tracers being directed
> at you as an individual.
>
>   Hence the name of this thread.
>
>   JL
>
>
>
> Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: learn something new every day
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Whoa, Jon! That *is* interesting. The Vietnam usage looks like a blend of
> the form, "bring P on" in its "fuck over" sense, with the form, "bring
> smok=
> e
> on," in its "shoot at" sense, with "bring P on," for whatever reason,
> being
> selected in place of "bring smoke on" as the canonic form. I was aware of
> the "misuse" of "bring P on" in Vietnam and had long wondered why the
> "correct" "bring smoke on" was not used. Perhaps "bring smoke on" was
> regarded as too concrete, "fuck over" not being included in it as a
> possibl=
> e
> meaning. If "bring P on" is used, there's a pun.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 2/15/06, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Jonathan Lighter
> > Subject: Re: learn something new every day
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > How interesting. A number of memoirs of Vietnam veterans memoirs have
> the
> > term "bring pee on," meaning "to subject to gun or rocket fire; to
> terrif=
> y
> > in this way."
> >
> > Is this a continuation of pre-1965 usage ?
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> > Wilson Gray wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > Poster: Wilson Gray
> > Subject: Re: learn something new every day
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > "Pea-time"/"pee-time" reminds me of an old, ca.1961, St. Louis BE usage:
> > "bring P," wherein "P" =3D3D "piece (of pussy)." This means "get some
> pus=
> sy"
> > (somehow, "be succcessful in an attempt to persuade a woman to allow one
> > to
> > engage in sexual intercourse with her" doesn't quite succeed in
> capturing
> > the flavor of the phrase).
> >
> > These "bring" phrases are extremely rare. The only other one that I know
> > of
> > is "bring smoke on someone's ass," which means "fire a gun at or shoot
> > someone." This one was in general use and not peculiar to St. Louis.
> Also=
> ,
> > "bring P on someone" means "fuck over someone."
> >
> > -Wilson
> >
> > On 2/15/06, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > >
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > > -----------------------
> > > Sender: American Dialect Society
> > > Poster: Laurence Horn
> > > Subject: learn something new every day
> > >
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> =3D
> > ------
> > >
> > > I reproduce this message (sans link) from the daily spam collection:
> > >
> > >
> =3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
> =3D3D=3D3D
> > > Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 8:15: 6 -0330
> > > From: "Genevieve Swain"
> > >
> > > What are you to do if you have bad erection? Especially
> > > in the forthcoming Saint Valentines Day???
> > > Don t worry, it is not the last of pea-time...
> > > The most simple way is to visit our site, order the
> > > medication and that is all you are to do!
> > >
> > > Do not kill the clock!
> > >
> =3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=3D3D=
> =3D3D=3D3D
> > >
> > > (You'll note that this was sent the day after Valentine's Day; never
> > > to early to plan ahead for next year, it appears.)
> > > Being wholly unfamiliar with the phrase, but assuming in the context
> > > it was not a typo for "the last of pee-time", I googled it, and sure
> > > enough "(like) the last of pea-time" has 157 g-hits, many with
> > > glosses along the line of 'elderly, old, senile'. Go know.
> > >
> > > Larry
> > >
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