Rat-tail(ed) broom

[Wilson Gray]

My mother also used a type of comb that she called a "rat-tailed"
comb. She was also an East-Texan: born in Longview, reared in
Marshall.

-Wilson

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 8:43 PM, Darla Wells <lethe9 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Darla Wells <lethe9 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Rat-tail(ed) broom
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>
> never heard that one, but we use _rat-tailed comb_ a whole lot
> Darla
>
> 2010/5/4 Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com>
>
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>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Rat-tail(ed) broom
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> This is probably more a DARE thing than an HDAS type of thing.
>>
>> There are only three hits that Google considers to be relevant.
>>
>> IAC, in Saint Louis, _rat-tailed broom_, like "whisk broom," is the
>> only name used for this handy object. Unfortunately, it's not likely
>> to come up as the subject of a random conversation. So, I have no idea
>> whether this handy form of broom is known / used elsewhere, perhaps
>> under a different name.
>>
>> Because it comes in so handy (we have cats), I *keeps* me a rat-tailed
>> broom. I've asked my wife about her familiarity with this tool and she
>> *thinks* that it *may* be called a "dust broom" in in NE PA.
>>
>> IAC, it looks roughly like an "ignorant stick" / "ignorance stick" -
>> pushbroom - with the handle removed and a third or so of the bristles
>> removed from the head, with the empty space carved, so to speak, into
>> a handle.
>>
>> BTW, I once read somewhere - Mario Pei, yet again? - that "ignorant
>> stick" originally referred to the spade as a tool of ditch-diggers.
>> But, IME, it was:
>>
>> "... pushing the ignorant stick ..."
>>
>> "What's that?"
>>
>> "Doing porter-work."
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>>
>>
>> -Wilson
>> =96=96=96
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"=96=96a strange complaint t=
> o
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> =96Mark Twain
>>
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>
>
> --=20
> If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible
> warning. -Catherine Aird
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--
-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

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