Stoop in DARE

[Nadia Pazolis-Gabriel]

Dear all,

That's it, I'm staying! There's no way I am unsubscribing from this gold
mine of a listserv now. Thank you to all those who responded to my query,
who gave me other sources of information, who commented and researched the
word.

Reference is not exactly where I'm going (I'm on the Technical Services
side); however, I envy reference librarians for having you, and I'll
certainly recommend your expertise to my colleagues.

Actually, if I may venture another question...
I'd be curious to know if there are other librarians in love with languages
(and foreign languages, English being one to me) on this listserv.
Please write me directly if you think this is irrelevant to the list.

Thanks again!

Nadia


On 9/25/07, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Stoop in DARE
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm pretty sure that a "small, pink, rubber ball" called a "spaldeen"
> / "Spalding" or by any other name was unknown in Saint Louis. White
> families with children were moving into the old neighborhood even
> after my family moved out. So, I don't think that it was a racial
> thing, since, strictly speaking, we never lived in a 'hood or in the
> ghetto, as these terms are understood, nowadays, and there were always
> white kids around to play with. At one time, we even shared the kind
> of micro-apartment building known in Saint Louis as a "two-family
> flat" with a white family. I'm abstracting away from living conditions
> in East Texas, of course, where segregation was as absolute as in
> Mississippi, except at the neighborhood Catholic church. Which is
> probably why I still count myself as a member of The One, True Faith,
> though I haven't attended of my own accord any kind of church function
> whatever since the '50's.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 9/25/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Stoop in DARE
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 9/25/2007 10:53 AM, you wrote:
> > >My stars alive! I'd forgotten about that stoop ball! I used to play it
> > >myself! The game plays okay against a wooden stoop, too, at least if
> > >you use a tennis ball.
> >
> > And better if you use a Spalding (known in the inner city as a
> > "spaldeen", but gentrified by the Wantagh school superintendent
> below)?  See
> > http://www.wantaghschools.org/superintendent/the%20superintendency.htm
> > for the connection (and growing up in Brooklyn):
> >
> > The "stoop" (front steps) served the dual purpose of "receiving the
> > only "toy" I had for many years - a Spalding ball. Stoop ball and
> > stick ball were America's (inner city) games, and no electronic
> > device or life-size hobby kit has ever come close to matching the joy
> > I received from that small, pink, rubber ball always within my grasp.
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
> --
> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org