"Past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes" (1930)

[Jonathan Lighter]

The version I heard back in the mists of time (about 1970) was "Past the teeth and over the gums: look out, stomach, here it comes."

  JL



Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "Past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes" (1930)
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Oddly enough, the versions that I've heard use "tummy." And, despite
the cite from my state of birth, I first heard it in 'Fifties Saint
Louis. Oops! I forgot. My birthplace is in a dry county, hence, no
sayings WRT to booze. Texas allows - or once allowed - prohibition by
county.

-Wilson

On 11/5/06, Bapopik at aol.com wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject: "Past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes" (1930)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My wife was watching A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT and this eating/drinking line
> was used. Does Fred have it?
> ...
> ...
> ...
> (GOOGLE BOOKS)
> _Eats: A Folk History of Texas Foods - Page x_
> (http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN087565035X&id=Knu0Xn2iJb4C&pg=PR10&lpg=PR10&dq="look+out+stomach"&ie=
> ISO-8859-1&sig=7qeB9m8PY69r0QBpVvNY3G8Yh4o)
> by Ernestine P. Sewell, Ernestine Sewall Linck, Joyce Gibson Roach - 1992 -
> 257 pages
> ... x Instead of blessing some merely anticipate the eats: Over the lips and
> past
> the gums Look out, stomach, here it comes. But it is most common to bless
> ...
> ...
> ...
> ...
> 16 September 1930, Chicago Daily Tribune, "A Line O' Type Or Two, pg. 14:
> Past the lips, across the gums,
> Look out stomach, here it comes.
> A KNOX TEKE.
> ...
> ...
> 11 November 1930, Southtown Economist (Chicago, IL), pg. 4, col. 6:
> SOME doctor with a bit of Shakespeare, James Whitcomb Riley, and Sam Hellman
> in his makeup, composed on a quiet afternoon, or perhaps it was an evening,
> this thrilling verse:
> "Over the teeth and through the gums,
> Down the red alley and through the lungs,
> Look out, stomach, here she comes."
> ...
> ...
> 18 September 1956, Long Beach (CA) Press- Telegram, pg. B9, col. 1:
> "Through the lips, past the gums, look out stomach, here it comes!"
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
Everybody says, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange
complaint to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is knows how deep
a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our
race. He brought death into the world.

--Sam Clemens

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