Roll up the sidewalks

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/20/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> 1932 _L.A. Times_ 6 Nov. III13/2 They're not rolling up the sidewalks
> at 9 o'clock in Hollywood any more.

Earlier still from Newspaperarchive:

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1931 _Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 22 May 8/4 Having heard from a
Coshocton student at Ohio Wesleyan that they rolled up the sidewalks
in this city at 9 o'clock, we were very surprised and pleased to find
that her impression of her own home town was not given to us.
-----

These two cites use the expression but not quite in the sense we're looking for:

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1928 _Mansfield (Ohio) News_ 26 June 1/1 They've rolled up the
sidewalks of New York and relaid them in Houston.
[Wire story about New York mayor Jimmy Walker campaigning for Al Smith
in Houston]
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1930 _Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner_ 13 Dec. 3/1 In one or two
sectors the fog was so heavy that you couldn't see across the street,
and they could have pulled down the buildings, rolled up the sidewalks
and pastured cows on Twenty-fifth street and Washington avenue and we
never would have known it.
-----


--Ben Zimmer

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