"Connecring the dots": origin?

Wed May 5 12:18:59 UTC 2010

That pretty much matches my recollection of NYC in the '50s.

Never heard of a "Bermuda skirt."  It must have been some kind of
experimental thing.

Hey, whippersnappers!  When "hot pants" came out ca1972, it was almost taken
for granted that a woman had to have 'em to wear 'em.

JL

On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 11:48 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Connecring the dots": origin?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sigh! I *knew* that I should have played the race card! I had very
> little expereince with what was usual among white people, back in the
> '40's. I grew up in neighborhoods alongside white children. But the
> fact that they shared a neighborhood with colored probably ipso facto
> made them atypical.
> IAC, little girls in the 'hood or at school did *not* wear boots,
> jodhpurs, or pants or trousers of any kind, except for "snowpants,"
> worn by girls and women of every age *under* their skirts or dresses,
> during the cold months. These were always removed indoors. When a girl
> reached the 9th grade - the first year of high school within the City
> of Saint Louis - only the County had junior highs, grades 7-9 - on
> informal occasions, she was then allowed to wear form-fitting Levi's,
> made so by putting them on, sitting in a bath of hot water, then
> allowing the Levi's to air-dry to shrink to fit her figure. Though it
> would have been possible for a girl to slip a knife into a pocket of
> her Levi's, she would have had to take the Levi's off to get the knife
> out, again. Women of all ages also wore shorts, sometimes *very*
> short, such as is the case with the miniskirts and -dresses of today.
> Of course, what would have been considered to be an almost
> obscenely-short pair of short-shorts on a twenty-year-old girl in the
> '40's can be seen on the grandmothers of today. The
> half-moon/Daisy-Duke/boody shorts of today, or even an above-the-knee
> hemline, would have led to arrest for indecent exposure.
>
> When Bermuda shorts became popular, ca. 1948, so-called "Bermuda
> skirts" were provided for girls and women, I saw a girl, perhaps
> twelve years old, i.e. about my own age, wearing such a skirt, about
> the length of a kilt, only *once*. For all practical purposes, the
> Bermuda skirt was just an urban myth. I was one of the few boys even
> to have *heard" of this skirt, to say nothing of actually seeing
> someone wearing one.
>
> Otherwise, only the skin-tight "pencil" skirt and "sheath" dress, both
> of mid-calf length *at least*, with so-called "kick-slits" to allow
> walking, permitted women teen-agedgirls any public display of
> so-called "sex-appeal."
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Tue, May 4, 2010 at 10:10 PM, Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at att.net> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Alison Murie <sagehen7470 at ATT.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: "Connecring the dots": origin?
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On May 4, 2010, at 12:31 AM, Wilson Gray 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: "Connecring the dots": origin?
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> "Mumbletypeg involves tossing a pocketknife into the ground in a
> >> progressively more difficult competition usually limited to two
> >> players. If the knife tossed by a player does not stick in the bare
> >> ground, the player loses *his* turn."
> >>
> >> This is the version of mumble-peg [m^m@ pEg] that we played in Saint
> >> Louis in the '40's. The possibility that a *girl* might have played
> >> this game in those days is *ridiculous*, for any number of reasons,
> >> including the fact that girls didn't carry knives or even have pockets
> >> in their dresses or skirts in which to carry one, any more than they
> >> had six-inch spike heels, thong panties, or WonderBras. I'd bet money
> >> that no woman alive today who was alive in those days has any idea
> >> what this game is and may not even have heard of it.
> >>
> >> There really has to be a sensible limit put to this
> >> no-"sexism"-in-language crap.
> >>
> >> -Wilson
> >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > You'd lose that bet, Wilson.  I knew about mumbletypeg, had a knife,
> > and had boots with a knife pocket, not to mention plenty of pockets in
> > overalls, jodpurs & even skirts. No spike heels, thong panties or
> > wonder bras (or Victoria's secrets).  'Course I didn't live in St.
> > Louis (but my mother was born & grew up there).
> > AM
> >
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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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