[Ads-l] "Later."

[Wilson Gray]

"See you later, sweet potater"

Many Google hits.

"Like the farmer said to the potater, 'Plant you now and dig you later.'"

Many Google hits, but new to me.

"See you later, sweet potater
"Plant you now and dig you later."

No results found for "See you later, sweet potater. Plant you now and dig
you later." in Google, but common in StL, in the post-war years.

Slang & sociability: in-group language among college students
https://books.google.com/books?id=oKJiAAAAMAAJ
Connie C. Eble - 1996 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions
It's been real comments positively on the time spent together. _The
frequently used later is a shortening of something like see you later; it
gives rise to latro and to the humorous rhyming expansion later, tater_.

No. _Later, tater_ is almost as old as "See you later, sweet potater," of
which it's clearly a clip.

"Later. Much later. Later for the hoppenings [sic]."

Sign-off of StL's first black DJ, from ca. 1947, perhaps the inspiration
for Ella Fitzgerald's ca. 1953 "Later for the Happenings, Baby." Or not.

-- 
-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

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org