Shade Tree Mechanic

[Wilson Gray]

Amin.

BTW, are you familiar with "house shoes" for any kind of footwear
*designed* for use indoors? As opposed to footwear *used* only
indoors, because it's no longer in good-enough shape to protect your
feet from the East Texas elements.

My PA-born wife says that she's not familiar with the term.

-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.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 8:35 AM, Murrah Lee <mclee at murrah.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Murrah Lee <mclee at MURRAH.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: Shade Tree Mechanic
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The term "shade tree mechanic" was very common in East Texas (Angelina
> County) when I grew up there in the 1950s. Â Most people in those days
> did not have a garage for their vehicles. Â My grandfather had one of
> the few in the area, and it was a one-stall corrugated metal building
> with a dirt floor, which was not suitable for working on a vehicle.
> The only alternative was to do the work in the open air, and in hot
> East Texas that meant getting under the shade of a large tree in the
> yard. Â Many trees had the further virtue of a large limb that with a
> rope and compound pulley or comealong could be used to pull the
> engine. Â For obvious reasons like "jake leg carpenter," it implied an
> amateurish level of skill.
>
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