MetaChat - Sayings from school days

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

14 February 2008

Sayings from school days I just now remembered that in 1st grade, if you were swinging in unison with someone else, one of the two would demand to the other "get out of my bathtub!" Does anyone else know this one? Share your own.→[More:]Also:

-We called cheap shoes "Bo Bos". I'm pretty sure that one went beyond my campus.

-For awhile in 7th grade, a lot of black kids would often sing "loveboat! loveboat!" while walking down the hall, but I never knew the song, or if one called that even existed. It was sung in kind of a Go-Go style. I've since chalked it down to a made up thing. On a side note, this was also when I learned how to make a hip hop beat by pounding your open fist on your chest for the kick and slapping your thigh for the snare. I still do this. Daily.

post by: Hellbient at: 16:47 | 17 comments

If you made a mistake or said something stupid, you had to say SIIIKE! really fast. Or someone else could yell "FIIIIIDY!" and scratch the back of your neck.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 14 February | 16:51

Ok, so I've worked out "siiike" is "psyche", but I have no idea what "fiiiidy" is.

posted by gaspode 14 February | 16:58

one of the two would demand to the other "get out of my bathtub!" Does anyone else know this one?

Yes yes yes! After many years of puzzlement from friends, I finally decided this was a family invention. (With five kids not too far apart in age, you do develop a family argot.) But apparently not! Exciting!

posted by Elsa 14 February | 17:07

wtf tps? That sounds like something you just made up (the FIIIIDY and neck scratch thing). Where does this stuff come from?

posted by Hellbient 14 February | 17:07

Yeah, Elsa! Wow. You're the first.

Oh, another one was in 7th grade gym, kids would run up behind you, slap the back of your neck really hard and yell "redneck!"

In the 9th grade, all these stoner kids (or "burnouts") would always say "shtaygot". I think it was like a dumb person i.e. - "he's a shtaygot".

Also, the same burnouts would play air guitar, but the notes would be pronounced "shqwa shqwant shqwant". So Smoke on the Water would be "shqwant shqwant shqwant/shqwant shqwant shqwanaant/shqwant shqwant shqwant/shqwant shqwant".

posted by Hellbient 14 February | 17:17

Yeah, Elsa! Wow. You're the first.

Babe, if I had a nickel...

Um, the whole Valentine thing might be making me unusually saucy.

Aaaaanyway:

Hellbient, I heard that in Northern New England, in the early seventies. But pinning down its introduction to my family would be nearly impossible: before I was born, the family lived all over the East Coast. I'll be curious to hear whether other bunnies know this phrase, and where they're from.

Another thing that I always assumed was a family thing, and particularly established by my oldest sister: "mocha" as an intensifier, e.g., "that song is mocha good!"; "the weather is mocha hot!"; "he was a mocha-fine fox!" That would be late 1970s-early 1980s, in Houston.

posted by Elsa 14 February | 17:24

Perhaps 'mocha' is derived partly from 'mucho'?

posted by box 14 February | 17:35

Doubtless, box; I just wondered if that, too, would prove to be of non-family origin.

posted by Elsa 14 February | 17:42

I remember in elementary school if someone asked what time it was you'd say "half past a monkey's ass according to it's balls". I still do that now.

Of course there was the taunt "neener, neener, neeeeeeener."

Also, I remember in first grade doing "Popeye" songs as in:

Popeye the sailor man
lived in a garbage can
turned on the heater
blew off his wiener
Popeye the sailor man

posted by eekacat 14 February | 18:15

"half past a monkey's ass according to it's balls".

No no no! It's "a quarter to his balls". Get it, like reading the time? That's a silly little mutation of a silly little saying!

And OUR popeye was:

I'm Popeye the sailor man,
I live in the garbage can!
I eat all the worms (pronounced "woy-ims)
and spit out the germs (pronounced "joy-ims)
I'm Popeye the sailor man!
Toot toot!"

(Note: the "toot toot" can be either verbally, or composed of "underarm-farts")

posted by muddgirl 14 February | 18:41

hey, we sang that too, muddgirl.

posted by gaspode 14 February | 18:47

Ha! We said the bathtub thing too (SoCal in the 70s).

After stepping on someone's heel (pulling their shoe off their heel with your foot sometimes deliberately, sometimes not) you said they had a "flat tire".

Getting in trouble or getting busted was "you're sooo moded!".

We said "pssssssyche!" after doing something unexpected (a fist almost into someone's face, almost tripping them, etc.).

We had a Popeye song too, but I don't remember the words.

And it's definitely "a quarter to his balls".

posted by deborah 14 February | 19:20

I keep telling this story in hopes that someone will be like, oh yeah, that happened at my school, too. But apparently I'm just a nut.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 14 February | 23:48

We called cheap shoes "Bo Bos"

Rejects,
Cost a dollar ninety-nine
Rejects,
Make your feet feel fine.

"Psych!" meant "fooled you!" or "you were mistaken!"

Hey y'all - what we're recollecting is known as children's folklore.... And people make a living studying it!

It's one of my favorite things.

posted by Miko 14 February | 23:55

I don't know about FIIDY, but in Highland Park, NJ, they have this rather rare piece of lore called "Fives." It's when you get up from a group and you want your seat to be saved -- you call "fives" as you get up. If you forget to call "fives," your seat is fair game, and someone else will be camped out there when you get back.

Seems like not a big deal, but remember where you sit IS a big deal when you're working your teenage angle and trying to get wit' somebody.

I've heard of variations of "save my seat" elsewhere, but never has it turned up as "fives" anywhere else, as far as I know. I'd love to see it from somewhere else.

posted by Miko 14 February | 23:58

While we also sang the Popeye theme that muddgirl mentions (East Bay - N. California, late 60s), there was also a variant:

I'm Popeye the sailor man
I live in a frying pan
I turned on the gas
and I burned off my ass
'cause I'm Popeye the sailor man

Toot toot!

Another fave went thusly:

Tah-rah-rah Boom-de-yay
Our teacher died today
We threw her in the bay
The sharks had lunch today

I'd like to conclude this little impromptu conert with an old playground favorite:

There's a place in France
Where the ladies always dance
And one didn't dance
So they shot her in the pants
And the pants that she wore
Cost a dollar eighty-four

Thank you. Thank you very much. You've been a beautiful audience. Thank you. Be sure to stop by the merch table on your way out.

posted by bmarkey 15 February | 00:12

Now that I think of it, there was a variant on that second bit:

Tah-rah-rah Boom-de-yay
I'll steal your pants away
And while you're standing there
I'll take your underwear

Kids are odd creatures, no?

posted by bmarkey 15 February | 00:19

← Dallas Bunnies: || We're sick. →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN