Anecdote: There=?windows-1252?Q?=92s_?=got to be a pony somewhere. (February 1953)

Wed Dec 11 00:22:29 UTC 2013

Kudos to Garson for a great contribution to folklore studies!

JL

On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 10:12 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:
>  =?windows-1252?Q?Re=3A_Anecdote=3A_There=92s_got_to_be_a_pony_som
>               ewhere=2E_?= =?windows-1252?Q?=28February_1953=29?=
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> If you are interested in the evolution of the popular "there must be a
> pony" anecdote here are some early citations beginning in 1902. Horse
> dung, a horse shoe, and a horsehair are used as comical proxies in
> these tales.
>
> [ref] 1902 January, Advertising Experience, Volume 14, Number 3, Agate
> Club Banquet of December 20th, (Speaker: William E. Mason, Illinois
> State Senator), Start Page 3, Quote Page 6, Column 2, Published and
> Edited by W.G. Souther, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View)
> link [/ref]
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=aBkxAQAAMAAJ&q=%22me+a+pony%22#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Three little children were hanging up their stockings. They were
> Rebecca and Rachel and Ikey. The old man had licked Ikey the night
> before and told him that Santa Claus was no good and wouldn't bring
> him anything.
>
> "Oh, yes," said Ikey, "Santa Claus will; my father is an old friend of
> his; Santa Claus is a nice fellow; he will bring me something."
>
> By the way, I should tell you what a mean daddy the father was. He
> went out into the street and got a piece of frozen earth that hadn't
> been left there by an automobile [laughter], and he put
> that—deliberately took and put it in poor little Ikey's stocking. In
> the morning the three children were up early to find out what Santa
> Claus had left them. "What you got?" was the first question as each
> examined the contents of the stockings. Rachel had a little diamond
> ring and Rebecca had a gold watch. "And you, Ikey. What did you get?"
>
> But Ikey was faithful.
>
> "Well, Santa Claus is all right," he said. "I think he brought me a
> pony, but he must have got away." [Laughter and applause.]
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> [ref] 1917 May, Bulletin (N.Y. State Safe Deposit Association), Volume
> 6, Number 5, (Introductory remark by Herbert T. Magruder of Hanover
> Safe Deposit Co., New York before the presentation of his paper "The
> Human Side of the Safe Deposit Business"), Quote Page 128, Published
> by New York State Safe Deposit Association, New York. (HathiTrust Full
> View) link link [/ref]
>
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433022930915
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433022930915?urlappend=%3Bseq=148
>
> [Being excerpt]
> Mr. Magruder: Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: Before asking you to follow
> me, for a few minutes, away from the big subjects of the day—the
> all-pervading clamor and excitement of the War; not to mention those
> other big topics which have been discussed before you last night and
> this afternoon, I am going to ask your indulgence for just this one
> story.
>
> Perhaps it is because I am a bit fearful that you may discover a sort
> of pervading tone of pessimism in this paper that I want to tell you
> this story about the two brothers—small boys—one of them a confirmed
> pessimist, and the other a thoroughly "blooming optimist."
>
> The father of these boys had tried in every way possible to equalize
> the natures of the boys, but with no success at all. So, when
> Christmas time came around he was very careful to purchase for the
> pessimistic one everything in the line of toys and outfit that he had
> at any time expressed a wish for. In the stocking of the optimistic
> youngster, he put only a small horseshoe, as an omen of Good Luck.
>
> Christmas morning came; and the pessimist, who was the first
> downstairs, looked wearily over the huge display of gifts provided for
> him; and then settled back with a sour look and this gloomy
> expression, "Oh, what's the use. These things will all be broken up in
> a day or two."
>
> Shortly afterwards, the optimist came bounding down; took one look
> into his stocking, and lifting out the horseshoe, exclaimed, "Oh,
> papa, look Santa Claus brought me a dandy pony, but it got away."
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> [ref] 1927, George R. Stuart: Life and Work by W. W. Pinson (William
> Washington Pinson), Quote Page 161 and 162, Cokesbury Press,
> Nashville, Tennessee. (HathiTrust) link link [/ref]
>
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89067375089
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89067375089?urlappend=%3Bseq=174
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> This story is one of his illustrations on the subject of optimism:
> "John and Jim were two brothers—John a decided optimist and Jim an
> extreme pessimist. Their father became alarmed over the pessimism of
> Jim and decided to try an experiment at Christmas. John wanted a pony
> and Jim a gold watch. The night before he put a beautiful gold watch
> in Jim's stocking and a horsehair in that of John. He hid next morning
> to see the effect.
>
> Jim came in, took out the watch and said: 'Looks like a gold watch. 0,
> I know it is not; must be brass. I bet the works won't be any good.'
> John followed, looked at the lone horsehair and laughingly said, 'Gee,
> Santa brought me a pony, but he got away.' His optimism failed to
> furnish the pony, but it saved the reputation of Santa Claus and
> gladdened the heart of John more than the gold watch did the heart of
> Jim."
>
> In his philosophy of life optimism and humor are fruits of the same
> tree if not interchangeable.
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> [ref] 1934 November 13, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, With Art Arthur: Eddie
> Cantor Loves to Tell the Story of a Prank He played on Pullman Train,
> Quote Page 12, Column 8, Brooklyn, New York. (Old Fulton)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Another pet child story that Lupino tells is a Christmas perennial,
> which we might as well relay as the first of the Christmas stories for
> this season. (Only umpty seven more days to Christmas.)
>
> As the story goes—there was a nice old man who had a little daughter
> named Winifred. But he was a poor man and when Christmas came around
> he hadn't enough money to buy his little daughter a gift.
>
> So he decided to get her a horseshoe and tell her about the wonderful
> luck it would bring. Came Christmas morning. The little girl ran down
> the stairs to the fireplace, reached into her stocking and brought
> forth the horseshoe.
>
> Her father came in a few minutes later, "Well, honey," he said, "was
> Santa Claus nice to you this morning?"
>
> And the little girl, her face beaming, exclaimed, "Oh, yes, daddy, he
> was. He brought me a pony—but it got away..."
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
> On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 7:13 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:
>  =?windows-1252?Q?Re=3A_Anecdote=3A_There=92s_got_to_be_a_pony_so?
> >               = =?windows-1252?Q?mewhere=2E_=28February_1953=29?=
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Nov 17, 2013, at 2:04 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >
> >> Garson, that's essentially the version I remember from Kirkwood's novel.
> >>
> >> Except, of course, that it as "horse shit," not "fertilizer."
> >>
> >> JL
> >
> > I'd opt to split the difference with "(horse) manure", as in "She was
> just a farmer's daughter, but all the horse manure".
> >
> > LH
> >>
> >>
> >> On Sun, Nov 17, 2013 at 1:37 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <
> >> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >>> -----------------------
> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject:
> >>> =?windows-1252?Q?Anecdote=3A_There=92s_got_to_be_a_pony_somewhere
> >>>              =2E_=28Feb?= =?windows-1252?Q?ruary_1953=29?=
> >>>
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> LH wrote:
> >>> I'm sure Reagan didn't invent his beloved story about the boy who was
> >>> delighted to be sent to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure
> >>> "because there's gotta be a pony in here somewhere".
> >>>
> >>> JL wrote:
> >>> I read it in James Kirkwood's novel, "There Must be a Pony!" (1960).
> >>>
> >>> JL also wrote:
> >>> I see Charlie found a reference from 1958. (Dictionary of Modern
> Proverbs:
> >>> highly recommended.)
> >>>
> >>> [Text from previous messages ends here]
> >>>
> >>> Google Books has matches that are supposedly dated in the 1940s for
> >>> the anecdote about optimism, manure, and a hypothetical pony.
> >>> Investigation shows that some of the dates are simply incorrect.
> >>> Probing shows that some of the volumes with matches contain material
> >>> from several years including the 1950s. At this point I do not know if
> >>> GB contains an earlier citation.
> >>>
> >>> However, here is a citation with a publication date 1953 from an
> >>> online repository of material from an Alcoholics Anonymous group. The
> >>> repository is not part of a library but it looks authentic.
> >>>
> >>> [ref] 1953 February, Central Bulletin, Volume 11, Number 4,
> >>> (Newsletter for Alcoholics Anonymous subgroup), A Giggle with a Moral,
> >>> Quote Page 2, Column 1, Published by Cleveland Central Committee of
> >>> Alcoholics Anonymous, Cleveland, Ohio. (Online repository at
> >>> silkworth.net; PDF of scanned pages; accessed November 17, 2013)[/ref]
> >>>
> >>> http://silkworth.net/cb/
> >>> http://silkworth.net/cb/1953.pdf
> >>>      (This link leads to a 6 megabyte file)
> >>>
> >>> [Begin excerpt]
> >>> The parents of identical twins were plagued by the fact that one was a
> >>> cheerful optimist and his brother a morbid pessimist. Not knowing how
> >>> to cope with the problem, they sought the advice of a psychiatrist. He
> >>> pondered a few moments and then made a proposal.
> >>>
> >>> “Go home,” he told the parents, “and fill one room with
> >>> toys-everything that a boy desires. Have all the packages beautifully
> >>> gift-wrapped. Put the pessimist in this room at 7:30 tomorrow morning.
> >>>
> >>> “Fill the other room with fertilizer-and maybe a shovel-but that’s
> >>> all. Put the optimist in this room at 7:30. I’ll be around at 9
> >>> o’clock and we shall see what we see.”
> >>>
> >>> Next morning the psychiatrist was prompt. He followed the parents into
> >>> the room with the wonderful toys. The kid was slouched in a chair with
> >>> a dejected look on his face. He hadn’t even removed the gift
> >>> wrappings. “What’s the use?” he asked glumly,  “I probably won’t like
> >>> what I find-and if I do, I won’t get to keep it.”
> >>>
> >>> A marked contrast greeted them in the other room. With a broad grin on
> >>> his face, the optimist was shoveling for all he was worth. “With all
> >>> this fertilizer,” he declared, “there’s got to be a pony somewhere.”
> >>> [End excerpt]
> >>>
> >>> Garson
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >>
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