Comments on: Talk like a hobo day

By: reba r.

reba r. — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:18:08 +0000

yall are holarious

By: chris coultas

chris coultas — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 22:30:41 +0000

read Ironweed by Kennedy to learn more about the Hobo life.

It won several prizes and then was made into a movie in 1987 that won several awards

By: Valentine

Valentine — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:45:26 +0000

re: “Dogginâ€™ it: traveling by Greyhound bus”
I always thought “doggin’ it” meant walking. As in “my dogs are tired” (my feet hurt) that sort of thing.

By: shelly

shelly — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:21:32 +0000

my grandfather rode the rails out to california during the depression. i remember one time when my daughter polished off her baby bottle, my grandfather said, ‘there’s another dead soldier.’ after reading this, his comment makes sense.

By: Trena

Trena — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:10:46 +0000

A little off topic, today is also ‘No Music Day’. Check out the NPR clip at npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16476782

By: Beth

Beth — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:24:57 +0000

The term honeydipper is alive and well in NJ. I used to work for a plumber and this term was often used.

By: GTT

GTT — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:38:41 +0000

Well, on the bright side, I will never think of honey the same way again…

By: Doc

Doc — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:35:38 +0000

“Honey-dipper” and “honey wagon” are terms that go back to the time when outhouses were the most common form of sanitation.

Outhouses didn’t act like a septic tank, per se – a septic tank uses naturally occuring bacteria to metabolize the waste and the resulting liquid goes thru an overflow to a leaching field, where it is absorbed into the ground.

With an outhouse (especially if you had a large family) the pit beneath the outhouse would fill up. You’d call the honey dippers who’d come and pump it out into the honey wagon. Either that or you’d shovel some dirt into the hole and move the outhouse.

By: Teal

Teal — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:38:19 +0000

In these parts, a honey wagon is a truck that pumps out septic tanks. They can be used to empty out porta-potties, but the pots have plenty of aliases of their own.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:51:25 +0000

Anyone think they also coined “wounded soldier”?