[Ads-l] "roll up the sidewalks"

[George Thompson]

Since time out of mind, when finding myself in a small town in the evening, I
have thought "They roll up the sidewalks early here",  having come upon
the expression in a book, probably one published in the 1920s or
thereabouts.
A related saying, one that I think I have never actually used myself --
though I may have found it in the same book --  is "This is a nine-o'clock
town?"
Both characterize a town where all the folks are safe at home, perhaps even
snug in bed, not long after sundown, and the sidewalks can be taken up and
stored until morning, because they won't be needed until then.

Neither expression is in the OED, and maybe don't deserve to be.

GAT


-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)

https://heritagecollections.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/HOP_WOA_3851

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