_hep_ vs. _hip_, trivially revisited

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Dec 11, 2011 at 8:41 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't have a cite to hand, but "Hep! Hep! Hep!" was indeed in use in
> the U.S. (at least so spelled in print) during World War I.

I didn't mean to imply that I, by any means, doubt the (former?)
existence of this usage. As usual, I forgot that there are some people
who lack the ability to read my mind. In '59, I was, coincidentally,
on active duty in The War and, at that time, according to both The
Soldier's Guide and my personal experience, the sound to be used was
_HUT!_. If a contemporary piece of music uses, instead, _HEP!_, in the
relevant environment, then it's a reasonable assumption, IMO, that the
former is a neologism and the storied latter is an older form that the
singer was familiar with from hearing WWII veterans et sim. of his
acquaintance speak of it or even from personal experience. In those
days, it was no big deal for *any* random male of the right age to
have had military or even combat experience.

Guys didn't merely *tell* war stories. Rather, they *exchanged* war stories.

It's certainly the case that *I* have never heard _hep_ used in
calling the cadence, but, WTF?

Youneverknow.

Soldiers were still wearing insignia and other elements of dress from
WWII and we were still eating C-rations from that era. Why couldn't it
be the case that, somewhere, some field first sergeant wasn't still
using the old way of calling cadence?

I didn't - and haven't, even yet - checked HDAS. But I included the
info WRT to the record, just in case that it might have some
nanovalue, the record's title being a pun that its hearers, in 1959,
were clearly expected to understand immediately.
--
-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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