"Backtrack, v"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I'm interested.  First America introduced the "date," then the "backtrack." Sneaky !

  JL

Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: "Backtrack, v"
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"Back(-)track, v." is not in Spears. However, I wouldn't be surprised
to find out that he left it out on purpose. It's very hard to define.
It has to be described.

A couple go [[for me, "couple" is like "people"] to a party or other
such social event. There, one member of the couple meets someone new
who is more attractive. He / she then says to his / her date something
like, "I'm not feeling good. Would you mind my taking you home? / mind
taking me home?" The date goes for the okey-doke. The dude dumps the
date at her house and he goes back to the party to hook up with the
new chick / the lame, trailed by the other dude in his own car, drops
the chick off at her house. She goes inside, staying long enough for
the lame to drive off, comes backs out, and rides off with the new
dude. If he's not following, she gets into her own car and drives back
to the party to hook up with him.

That's "back(-)tracking." I recall a friend bragging, "I got there so
quick, he was still shaking her hand!" I also recall that a girl said
to me, "I came back especially to see Wilson!" *Very* flattering!
Especially given that we hadn't made plans to hook up before she left.
She was willing to take the chance that I might blow her off.

WRT documentation, I know only of an old R&B 78 entitled, "Back-Track
Shack," (I'd be happy to try to track it down, if anyone cares.) The
new couple agree to meet at some neutral location, the said shack, as
opposed to going back to the original social gathering, a la mode de
Saint Louis and the 1973 LSA Summer Institute.

-Wilson
--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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